tanuki
/təˈnʊkɪ/
"tanuki" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tanuki” is uncommon English (frequency #89,976 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #89,976
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A raccoon dog, Nyctereutes viverrinus.
Corpus desk
Index EN-tanuki · tanuki · English
tanuki · rank #89,976 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #89,976
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH targum
Nearest frequency peer: targum (+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 “tanuki”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Takano
Takano
10,029 corpus weight
- talky
talky
10,028 corpus weight
- Tallman
Tallman
10,027 corpus weight
- tanuki
tanuki
10,025 corpus weight
- targum
targum
10,024 corpus weight
- tela
tela
10,020 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “tanuki” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tanuki |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /təˈnʊkɪ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #89,976 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “tanuki” in English
Rare enough to double-check
tanuki is uncommon English at frequency #89,976 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /təˈnʊkɪ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for tanuki, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Japanese 狸(たぬき) (tanuki, “raccoon dog”). The correct English form is tanuki, spelled T-A-N-U-K-I.
Definition
- 1A raccoon dog, Nyctereutes viverrinus.
- 2A folkloric figure in the form of a tanuki, regarded as a shapeshifter and renowned for its enormous scrotum and testicles.
- 3The joining of a living bonsai tree to a piece of dead wood for aesthetic effect.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how tanuki appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
At my onboarding, I was told that one of GitHub's employees identified as a tanuki, a Japanese raccoon dog—this was fine.
Etymology
Borrowed from Japanese 狸(たぬき) (tanuki, “raccoon dog”).
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 "tanuki"?
What does "tanuki" mean?
How do you pronounce "tanuki"?
What is the origin of the word "tanuki"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tanuki", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).