tarry
/ˈtæ.ɹi/
"tarry" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tarry” is an uncommon English word, ranked #57,758 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #57,758
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To delay; to be late or tardy in beginning or doing anything.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tarry |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈtæ.ɹi/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #57,758 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tarry” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for tarry is 5 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtæ.ɹi/. Corpus data places it at rank #57,758 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for tarry, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English tarien, terien (“to vex, harass, cause to hesitate, delay”), from Old English tirian, tirġan, terġan (“to worry, exasperate, pain, provoke, excite”), from Proto-Germanic *terganą, *targijaną (“to pull, tease, irritate”), from Proto-Indo-… The correct English form is tarry, spelled T-A-R-R-Y.
Definition
- 1To delay; to be late or tardy in beginning or doing anything.
- 2To linger in expectation of something or until something is done or happens.
- 3To abide, stay or wait somewhere, especially if longer than planned.
- 4To stay somewhere temporarily.
- 5To wait for; to stay or stop for; to allow to linger.
Etymology
From Middle English tarien, terien (“to vex, harass, cause to hesitate, delay”), from Old English tirian, tirġan, terġan (“to worry, exasperate, pain, provoke, excite”), from Proto-Germanic *terganą, *targijaną (“to pull, tease, irritate”), from Proto-Indo-European *derHgʰ- (“to pull, tug, irritate”). Cognate with Dutch tergen (“to provoke”), German zergen (“to vex, irritate, provoke”), Norwegian Bokmål terge (“to irritate, provoke”), Russian дёргать (djórgatʹ, “to pull, yank, jerk, pester”). Compare also Walloon tårdjî (“to be late, to be slow, to wait”). Compare typologically Czech meškat, Russian ме́шкать (méškatʹ) (akin to меша́ть (mešátʹ)), копа́ться (kopátʹsja) (akin to копа́ть (kopátʹ)).
This word in other languages
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 “tarry”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-A-R-R-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈtæ.ɹi/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.