tallow

/ˈtæləʊ/

//ˈtæləʊ// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"tallow" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“tallow” is uncommon English (frequency #57,754 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#57,754
frequency rank, English
3,151
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A hard animal fat obtained from suet, etc.; used in cooking as well as to make candles, soap and lubricants.

Corpus desk

Index EN-tallow · tallow · English

tallow · rank #57,754 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #57,754
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,151
  • PHOTO-FINISH Talmudic

Nearest frequency peer: Talmudic (+1 rank slots)

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.

Long-tail ranks near “tallow”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “tallow” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for tallow
PropertyValue
Headwordtallow
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈtæləʊ/
Letters6
Frequency rank#57,754
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “tallow” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).tallowfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “Talmudic” (#57,755), “swum” (#57,752), “tamoxifen” (#57,756). Among 3,151 “T” headwords, “tallow” is #57,754. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

tallow is uncommon English at frequency #57,754 among 3,151 “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

  1. 1
    A hard animal fat obtained from suet, etc.; used in cooking as well as to make candles, soap and lubricants.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. "I have got a very fine shirt, which I am going to use for my wedding shirt; but there are three tallow stains on it which I want washed out[.]"
  2. Nor were the wool prospects much better. The pastoral industry, which had weathered the severe depression of the early forties by recourse to boiling down the sheep for their tallow, and was now firmly re-established as the staple industry of the colony, was threatened once more with eclipse.

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

suif(Français)Talg(Deutsch)sebo(Português)

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

How do you spell "tallow"?
"tallow" is spelled T-A-L-L-O-W. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈtæləʊ/.
What does "tallow" mean?
As a noun, "tallow" means: A hard animal fat obtained from suet, etc.; used in cooking as well as to make candles, soap and lubricants.
How do you pronounce "tallow"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tallow" is /ˈtæləʊ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "tallow"?
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”) ... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tallow", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

teeter#57,761testis#57,765truant#57,785Sigrid#57,711

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list