tautological

adj

"tautological" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“tautological” is uncommon English (frequency #93,219 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#93,219
frequency rank, English
3,151
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of, relating to, or using tautology.

Corpus desk

Index EN-tautological · tautological · English

tautological · rank #93,219 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #93,219
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,151
  • PHOTO-FINISH Taniguchi

Nearest frequency peer: Taniguchi (-3 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.

Long-tail ranks near “tautological”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “tautological” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for tautological
PropertyValue
Headwordtautological
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters12
Frequency rank#93,219
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “tautological” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).tautologicalfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “Taniguchi” (#93,216), “Talavera” (#93,215), “tearjerker” (#93,223). Among 3,151 “T” headwords, “tautological” is #93,219. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

tautological is uncommon English at frequency #93,219 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for tautological, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From tautology + -ical. The correct English form is tautological, spelled T-A-U-T-O-L-O-G-I-C-A-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Of, relating to, or using tautology.
  2. 2
    Using repetition or excessive wordiness; pleonastic or circumlocutionary.

Etymology

From tautology + -ical.

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

How do you spell "tautological"?
"tautological" is spelled T-A-U-T-O-L-O-G-I-C-A-L.
What does "tautological" mean?
As an adjective, "tautological" means: Of, relating to, or using tautology.
What is the origin of the word "tautological"?
From tautology + -ical. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tautological", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list