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PlainSpell

tape

/teɪ̯p/noun, verb

tape is spelled T-A-P-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,364th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, tape means “Flexible material in a roll with a sticky surface on one or both sides; adhesive tape” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of tape is tapes.

How many letters and syllables are in tape?

Letters4: T-A-P-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing28 times per million words; the 3,364th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is tape?

Tape appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,364th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce tape?

  • US /teɪ̯p/
  • US [tʰeɪ̯p]

Tape has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-tape.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with tape?

7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as tape from its last stressed vowel (/eɪp/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: peat, pate, tepa.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of tape

  • tapes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • taping participle, present
  • taped participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does tape mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Flexible material in a roll with a sticky surface on one or both sides; adhesive tape.

    Hand me some tape. I need to fix a tear in this paper.

  2. 2

    Thin and flat paper, plastic or similar flexible material, usually produced in the form of a roll.

    We made some decorative flowers out of the tape we bought.

  3. 3

    Finishing tape, stretched across a track to mark the end of a race.

    Jones broke the tape in 47.77 seconds, a new world record.

  4. 4

    Magnetic or optical recording media in a roll; videotape or audio tape.

    Did you get that on tape?

  5. 5

    informalAny video or audio recording, regardless of the method used to produce it.

  6. 6

    informalAn unthinking, patterned response triggered by a particular stimulus.

    Old couples will sometimes play tapes at each other during a fight.

  7. 7

    The series of prices at which a financial instrument trades.

    Don’t fight the tape.

  8. 8

    The wrapping of the primary puck-handling surface of a hockey stick.

    His pass was right on the tape.

verb

  1. 1

    To bind with adhesive tape.

    Be sure to tape your parcel securely before posting it.

  2. 2

    To record, originally onto magnetic tape.

    You shouldn’t have said that. The microphone was on and we were taping.

  3. 3

    informalTo understand, figure out.

    I've finally got this thing taped.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Tape in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbande (video or audiocassette tape), scotcher (to bind with adhesive tape)
GermanBand (video or audiocassette tape), tapen (to bind with adhesive tape)
Portuguesefita (video or audiocassette tape)
Spanishcinta (video or audiocassette tape), atar, encintar, teipear, enteipar (to bind with adhesive tape), grabar (to record, particularly onto magnetic tape)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does tape come from?

From Middle English tape, tappe, from Old English tæppa, tæppe (“ribbon, tape”); further origin unclear. Probably akin to Old Frisian tapia (“to pull, rip, tear”), Middle Low German tappen, tāpen (“to grab, pull, rip, tear, snatch”), Middle High German zāfen, zāven (“to pull, tear”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after tape