taste
/teɪst/
"taste" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“taste” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #1,924. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #1,924
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - One of the sensations produced by the tongue in response to certain chemicals; the quality of giving this sensation.
Corpus desk
Index EN-taste · taste · English
taste · rank #1,924 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #1,924
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH stress
Nearest frequency peer: stress (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “taste”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- sport
sport
98,080 corpus weight
- steps
steps
98,079 corpus weight
- stress
stress
98,078 corpus weight
- taste
taste
98,077 corpus weight
- tea
tea
98,076 corpus weight
- victory
victory
98,075 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “taste” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | taste |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /teɪst/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,924 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “taste” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around taste (IPA /teɪst/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,924 among 3,151 “T” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for taste, with forms such as "atste", "taset", and "tasste". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "tat", "tse", "test", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English tasten, borrowed from Old French taster, from assumed Vulgar Latin *tastāre, from assumed Vulgar Latin *taxitāre, a new iterative of Latin taxāre (“to touch sharply”), from tangere (“to touch”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g… The correct English form is taste, spelled T-A-S-T-E.
Definition
- 1One of the sensations produced by the tongue in response to certain chemicals; the quality of giving this sensation.
- 2The sense that consists in the perception and interpretation of this sensation.
- 3A small sample of food, drink, or recreational drugs.
- 4A person's implicit set of preferences, especially esthetic, though also culinary, sartorial, etc.
- 5Personal preference; liking; predilection.
- 6A small amount of experience with something that gives a sense of its quality as a whole.
- 7A kind of narrow and thin silk ribbon.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how taste appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He had a strange taste in his mouth.
Venison has a strong taste.
Etymology
From Middle English tasten, borrowed from Old French taster, from assumed Vulgar Latin *tastāre, from assumed Vulgar Latin *taxitāre, a new iterative of Latin taxāre (“to touch sharply”), from tangere (“to touch”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g-. Almost displaced native Middle English smaken, smakien (“to taste”) (from Old English smacian (“to taste”)), Middle English smecchen (“to taste, smack”) (from Old English smæċċan (“to taste”)) (whence Modern English smack), Middle English buriȝen (“to taste”) (from Old English byrigan, birian (“to taste”)).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- atste
- taset
- tasste
- tastte
- tatse
- ttaste
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of taste - 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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "taste", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "taste". Here's where to go from here.
- "taste" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "tat". View pair
- 6 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #1,924 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "T" letter cohort. T–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.