tapas
/ˈtæpæs/
"tapas" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tapas” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #34,713 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #34,713
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A variety of Spanish small savoury food items or snacks such as croquettes, cured meat, potato salad, and seafood, originally served with sherry and now often with other alcoholic beverages as well.
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 | tapas |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtæpæs/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #34,713 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tapas” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for tapas is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtæpæs/. Corpus data places it at rank #34,713 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A variety of Spanish small savoury food items or snacks such as croquettes, cured meat, potato salad, and seafood, originally served with sherry and now often with other alcoholic beverages as well.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for tapas, with forms such as "atpas", "taaps", and "tapass". 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, "TPS", "tips", "tape", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Spanish tapas, the plural of tapa (“appetizer, tapa; cap, lid (cover of a container)”) (from the fact that plates of tapas were originally placed on the tops of glasses of alcoholic beverages as lids), from Gothic *𐍄𐌰𐍀𐍀𐌰 (*tappa), from Proto-Germa… The correct English form is tapas, spelled T-A-P-A-S.
Definition
- 1A variety of Spanish small savoury food items or snacks such as croquettes, cured meat, potato salad, and seafood, originally served with sherry and now often with other alcoholic beverages as well.
Etymology
From Spanish tapas, the plural of tapa (“appetizer, tapa; cap, lid (cover of a container)”) (from the fact that plates of tapas were originally placed on the tops of glasses of alcoholic beverages as lids), from Gothic *𐍄𐌰𐍀𐍀𐌰 (*tappa), from Proto-Germanic *tappô (“plug; tap”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂p- (“to lose; to sacrifice”). Doublet of tap.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: atpas,taaps,tapass,tappas,tapsa,tpaas,ttapas
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tapas - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “tapas”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-A-P-A-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈtæpæs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “TPS” - see the side-by-side comparison. tapas vs TPS
- 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.