talon
/ˈtælən/
"talon" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“talon” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #30,254 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #30,254
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A sharp, hooked claw of a bird of prey or other predatory animal.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | talon |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtælən/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #30,254 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “talon” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for talon is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtælən/. Corpus data places it at rank #30,254 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for talon, with forms such as "tallon", "talno", and "talonn". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ton", "tan", "tao", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English talon, taloun, from Old French talon (“heel, spur”), from Medieval Latin tālōnem, from Proto-Romance *tālōnis, from Latin tālus (“ankle”). The correct English form is talon, spelled T-A-L-O-N.
Definition
- 1A sharp, hooked claw of a bird of prey or other predatory animal.
- 2One of certain small prominences on the hind part of the face of an elephant's tooth.
- 3A kind of moulding, concave at the bottom and convex at the top; an ogee. (When the concave part is at the top, it is called an inverted talon.)
- 4The shoulder of the bolt of a lock on which the key acts to shoot the bolt.
- 5The remaining stock of undealt cards.
- 6A document that could be detached and presented in exchange for a block of further coupons on a bond, when the original block had been used up.
Etymology
From Middle English talon, taloun, from Old French talon (“heel, spur”), from Medieval Latin tālōnem, from Proto-Romance *tālōnis, from Latin tālus (“ankle”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: tallon,talno,talonn,taoln,tlaon,ttalon
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of talon - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “talon”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-A-L-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈtælən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ton” - see the side-by-side comparison. talon vs ton
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.