tamale

/təˈmɑː.liː/

//təˈmɑː.liː// noun

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

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

The verdict

“tamale” is uncommon English (frequency #54,522 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#54,522
frequency rank, English
3,151
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A Mexican dish of cornmeal dough shell filled with various ingredients (e.g. chopped beef, pork, sweet filling) then steamed in corn husks.

Corpus desk

Index EN-tamale · tamale · English

tamale · rank #54,522 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #54,522
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,151
  • PHOTO-FINISH swooning

Nearest frequency peer: swooning (-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 “tamale”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for tamale
PropertyValue
Headwordtamale
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/təˈmɑː.liː/
Letters6
Frequency rank#54,522
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “tamale” 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).tamalefalls 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: “swooning” (#54,521), “swisher” (#54,520), “tarragon” (#54,524). Among 3,151 “T” headwords, “tamale” is #54,522. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

tamale is uncommon English at frequency #54,522 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /təˈmɑː.liː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A Mexican dish of cornmeal dough shell filled with various ingredients (e.g. chopped beef, pork, sweet filling) then steamed in corn husks.".

tamale doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: Back-formation from the plural tamales, derived from Latin American Spanish tamales, plural of tamal, derived from Nahuatl tamalli (“wrapped”), derived from Proto-Uto-Aztecan *tïmaL-. Compare O'odham cemait (“tortilla”), Hopi tuma (“stone griddle for cookin… The correct English form is tamale, spelled T-A-M-A-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    A Mexican dish of cornmeal dough shell filled with various ingredients (e.g. chopped beef, pork, sweet filling) then steamed in corn husks.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. She would peel back the husk, ladle over the salsa verde, stab a plastic fork straight down into the heart of the masa, and hand the tamale over to me.

Etymology

Back-formation from the plural tamales, derived from Latin American Spanish tamales, plural of tamal, derived from Nahuatl tamalli (“wrapped”), derived from Proto-Uto-Aztecan *tïmaL-. Compare O'odham cemait (“tortilla”), Hopi tuma (“stone griddle for cooking corn flatbread”), Ute tʉ'ma- (“to roast under ashes”).

This word in other languages

tamal(Español)

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 "tamale"?
"tamale" is spelled T-A-M-A-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is /təˈmɑː.liː/.
What does "tamale" mean?
As a noun, "tamale" means: A Mexican dish of cornmeal dough shell filled with various ingredients (e.g. chopped beef, pork, sweet filling) then steamed in corn husks.
How do you pronounce "tamale"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tamale" is /təˈmɑː.liː/. 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 "tamale"?
Back-formation from the plural tamales, derived from Latin American Spanish tamales, plural of tamal, derived from Nahuatl tamalli (“wrapped”), derived from Proto-Uto-Aztecan *tïmaL-. Compare O'odham cemait (“tortilla”), Hopi tuma (“stone griddle ... 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 "tamale", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

unmask#54,551uppity#54,553upturn#54,554shoppe#54,483

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list