taupe
/təʊp/
"taupe" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“taupe” is uncommon English (frequency #50,832 among 27,828 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #50,832
- frequency rank, English
- 27,828
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A dark brownish-grey colour, the colour of moleskin.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | taupe |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /təʊp/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #50,832 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “taupe” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
taupe is uncommon English at frequency #50,832 among 27,828 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /təʊp/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A dark brownish-grey colour, the colour of moleskin.".
taupe doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French taupe, from Latin talpa (“mole”). Doublet of talpa. The correct English form is taupe, spelled T-A-U-P-E.
Definition
- 1A dark brownish-grey colour, the colour of moleskin.
Etymology
Borrowed from French taupe, from Latin talpa (“mole”). Doublet of talpa.
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 “taupe”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-A-U-P-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /təʊp/ (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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.