taw
/tɔː/
"taw" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“taw” is uncommon English (frequency #65,555 among 27,828 “T” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #65,555
- frequency rank, English
- 27,828
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To prepare or dress, as hemp, by beating; to tew.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | taw |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /tɔː/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #65,555 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “taw” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
taw is uncommon English at frequency #65,555 among 27,828 “T” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /tɔː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for taw, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English tawen, from Old English tawian (“to do, make”), from Proto-West Germanic *tawōn, a variant of Proto-West Germanic *tauwjan, from Proto-Germanic *tawjaną (“to make, prepare”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewh₂- (“to tie to, secure”). Cognat… The correct English form is taw, spelled T-A-W.
Definition
- 1To prepare or dress, as hemp, by beating; to tew.
- 2To beat; to scourge.
- 3To dress and prepare, as the skins of sheep, lambs, goats, and kids, for gloves, etc., by imbuing them with alum, salt, and other agents, for softening and bleaching them.
- 4To dress and prepare, as the skins of sheep, lambs, goats, and kids, for gloves, etc., by imbuing them with alum, salt, and other agents, for softening and bleaching them.
Etymology
From Middle English tawen, from Old English tawian (“to do, make”), from Proto-West Germanic *tawōn, a variant of Proto-West Germanic *tauwjan, from Proto-Germanic *tawjaną (“to make, prepare”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewh₂- (“to tie to, secure”). Cognate with Dutch touwen (“to rope, tether, curry”), Dutch tuien (“to fasten with ropes”), German Tau (“rope, hawser, cable”), Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌿𐌾𐌰𐌽 (taujan, “to make, prepare”). Related to tool and tether.
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 “taw”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-A-W - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /tɔː/ (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.