tarnish
/ˈtɑːnɪʃ/
"tarnish" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tarnish” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #35,107 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #35,107
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Oxidation or discoloration, especially of a decorative metal exposed to air.
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 | tarnish |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtɑːnɪʃ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #35,107 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tarnish” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for tarnish is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtɑːnɪʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #35,107 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Oxidation or discoloration, especially of a decorative metal exposed to air.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for tarnish, with forms such as "atrnish", "tanrish", and "tarinsh". 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 4 confusable-pair relationships, "Trish", "Turkish", "tarnished", 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 ternysshen, from Old French terniss-, stem of ternir (“to make dim, make wan”), borrowed from Old High German *ternen, tarnen, from Proto-West Germanic *darnijan (“to conceal”). Doublet of dern and darn. The correct English form is tarnish, spelled T-A-R-N-I-S-H.
Definition
- 1Oxidation or discoloration, especially of a decorative metal exposed to air.
Etymology
From Middle English ternysshen, from Old French terniss-, stem of ternir (“to make dim, make wan”), borrowed from Old High German *ternen, tarnen, from Proto-West Germanic *darnijan (“to conceal”). Doublet of dern and darn.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: atrnish,tanrish,tarinsh,tarnihs,tarnishh,tarnissh,tarnnish,tarnsih,tarrnish,tranish,ttarnish
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tarnish - 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 “tarnish”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-A-R-N-I-S-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈtɑːnɪʃ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Trish” - see the side-by-side comparison. tarnish vs Trish
- 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.