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PlainSpell

tattoo

/tæˈtu/noun, verb

tattoo is spelled T-A-T-T-O-O. The wrong spelling people search most is tatoo: about 1,880 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 11 of all searches for the word. Tattoo is a noun meaning “An image made on a body part, usually the skin with ink and a needle”. The plural of tattoo is tattoos or tattooes.

How many letters and syllables are in tattoo?

Letters6: T-A-T-T-O-O
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing14 times per million words; the 5,679th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, tatoo, about 1,880 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

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 tattoo?

Tattoo is spelled T-A-T-T-O-O. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 11 of the searches for tattoo in either form.

tattoothe right spelling18,340 searches a month
tatooa missing t1,880 searches a month

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 tattoo?

Tattoo appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,679th 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 tattoo?

  • US /tæˈtu/
  • US [tʰæˈtʰuː] ~ [tʰæˈtʰʉw]
  • UK /tæˈtuː/

Tattoo 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Qwertygiy-tattoo.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-tattoo.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with tattoo?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as tattoo from its last stressed vowel (/u/):

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 tattoo

  • tattoos plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • tattooes plural
  • tattooing participle, present
  • tattooed participle, past
  • tattu

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

What does tattoo mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    An image made on a body part, usually the skin with ink and a needle.

  2. 2

    A method of decorating a body part, usually the skin, by inserting colored substances under the surface with a sharp instrument (usually a solenoid-driven needle).

  3. 3

    A signal played five minutes before taps (lights out).

  4. 4

    A signal by drum or bugle ordering soldiers to return to their quarters.

  5. 5

    A military display or pageant.

  6. 6

    A rhythmic tapping.

  7. 7

    A pony of a certain breed from India.

verb

  1. 1

    To apply a tattoo to (someone or something).

  2. 2

    To hit the ball hard, as if to figuratively leave a tattoo on the ball.

    Jones tattoos one into the gap in left; that will clear the bases.

  3. 3

    To tap rhythmically on, to drum.

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

How do you abbreviate tattoo?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of tattoo: tatt.

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

Tattoo in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchtatouage (an image made in the skin with ink and a needle), tatouer (to apply a tattoo)
GermanTätowierung, Tattoo (an image made in the skin with ink and a needle), tätowieren (to apply a tattoo), Tätowieren (method of decorating the skin by inserting…), Zapfenstreich (time to close the taps), Großer Zapfenstreich (military display or pageant)
Portuguesetatuagem (an image made in the skin with ink and a needle), tatuar (to apply a tattoo)
Spanishtatuaje (an image made in the skin with ink and a needle), tatuar (to apply a tattoo), parada (military display or pageant), retreta (signal)

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 tattoo come from?

From earlier tattaow, tattow, a borrowing from a Polynesian language, e.g. Samoan tatau (“tattoo; to tap, to strike”).

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

What to look up after tattoo