tallow
/ˈtæləʊ/
"tallow" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tallow” is uncommon English (frequency #57,754 among 27,828 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #57,754
- frequency rank, English
- 27,828
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A hard animal fat obtained from suet, etc.; used in cooking as well as to make candles, soap and lubricants.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tallow |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtæləʊ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #57,754 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tallow” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
tallow is uncommon English at frequency #57,754 among 27,828 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈtæləʊ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A hard animal fat obtained from suet, etc.; used in cooking as well as to make candles, soap and lubricants.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for tallow, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English talow, talgh, from Old English *tealh, *tealg, (compare Old English tælg, telg (“dye”)), from Proto-West Germanic *talg, from Proto-Germanic *talgaz (compare Dutch talg, German Talg), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to flow”) (compare M… The correct English form is tallow, spelled T-A-L-L-O-W.
Definition
- 1A hard animal fat obtained from suet, etc.; used in cooking as well as to make candles, soap and lubricants.
Etymology
From Middle English talow, talgh, from Old English *tealh, *tealg, (compare Old English tælg, telg (“dye”)), from Proto-West Germanic *talg, from Proto-Germanic *talgaz (compare Dutch talg, German Talg), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to flow”) (compare Middle Irish delt (“dew”), Old Armenian տեղ (teł, “heavy rain”)).
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); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “tallow”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-A-L-L-O-W - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈtæləʊ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.