take flight

verb

"take-flight" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“take flight” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
11
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To begin flying; to become airborne or aloft; to take off and fly

Corpus desk

Index EN-take-flight · take flight · English

take flight · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "T" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for take flight
PropertyValue
Headwordtake flight
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters11
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “take flight” in English

take flightranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

take flight is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for take flight, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is take flight, spelled T-A-K-E- -F-L-I-G-H-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    To begin flying; to become airborne or aloft; to take off and fly
  2. 2
    to flee

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how take flight appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Though the bird is still young, in a day or two it will spread its wing and take flight for the first time.
  2. The criminals took flight as soon as they heard the sirens.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "take flight"?
"take flight" is spelled T-A-K-E- -F-L-I-G-H-T.
What does "take flight" mean?
As a verb, "take flight" means: To begin flying; to become airborne or aloft; to take off and fly
What language does "take flight" come from?
"take flight" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list