tassel
/ˈtæsəl/noun, verb
tassel is spelled T-A-S-S-E-L. The wrong spelling people search most is tassle: about 480 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Tassel is a noun meaning “A ball-shaped bunch of plaited or otherwise entangled threads from which at one end protrudes a cord on which…”. The plural of tassel is tassels.
How many letters and syllables are in tassel?
| Letters | 6: T-A-S-S-E-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 42,145th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, tassle, about 480 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| 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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell tassel?
Tassel is spelled T-A-S-S-E-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for tassel in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is tassel?
Tassel appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 42,145th 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 tassel?
- /ˈtæsəl/
Tassel has 2 syllables (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-tassel.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with tassel?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as tassel.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: steals.
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 tassel
- tassels plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- tasseling US, participle, present
- tasselling UK, participle, present
- tasseled US, participle, past
- tasselled UK, participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does tassel mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A ball-shaped bunch of plaited or otherwise entangled threads from which at one end protrudes a cord on which the ball is hung, and which may have loose, dangling threads at the other end (often used as decoration along the bottom of garments, curtains or other hangings).
- 2
The panicle on a male plant of maize, which consists of loose threads with anthers on them.
- 3
The loose hairs at the end of a braid.
- 4
A narrow silk ribbon, or similar, sewn to a book to be put between the pages.
- 5
A piece of board that is laid upon a wall as a sort of plate, to give a level surface to the ends of floor timbers.
- 6
A kind of bur used in dressing cloth; a teasel.
- 7
A thin plate of gold on the back of a bishop's gloves.
- 8
Alternative form of tassell.
verb
- 1
To adorn with tassels.
- 2
To put forth a tassel or flower.
Maize is a crop that tassels.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Tassel in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | gland , panicule |
| German | Quaste, Klunker, Troddel |
| Portuguese | borla , barbas de milho |
| Spanish | borla, fleco , franja |
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 tassel come from?
From Middle English tassel, from Old French tassel, from Latin tāxillus (“small cube”), from tālus (“ankle”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).