taxi
/ˈtæk.si/
"taxi" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“taxi” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,273 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,273
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A vehicle that may be hired for single journeys by members of the public, particularly one with an automated meter to calculate the fare.
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 | taxi |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtæk.si/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #5,273 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “taxi” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for taxi is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtæk.si/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,273 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for taxi, with forms such as "atxi", "taix", and "taxxi". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "TX", "ti", "tri", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Shortened from taximeter cab, taximeter (“automatic meter that records distance and fare”) from French taximètre, from German Taxameter (whence also English taxameter), coined from Medieval Latin taxa (“tax, charge”). More at tax, task. The aviation sense o… The correct English form is taxi, spelled T-A-X-I.
Definition
- 1A vehicle that may be hired for single journeys by members of the public, particularly one with an automated meter to calculate the fare.
- 2An aircraft used for practicing ground manoeuvres.
- 3The movement of an aircraft across an airport's surface under its own power; a phase of aircraft operation involving this movement.
- 4Synonym of shared taxi.
Etymology
Shortened from taximeter cab, taximeter (“automatic meter that records distance and fare”) from French taximètre, from German Taxameter (whence also English taxameter), coined from Medieval Latin taxa (“tax, charge”). More at tax, task. The aviation sense originally derived for a slang term for training aircraft used for practicing ground operations, which were said to drive around the airfield like a taxicab, and subsequently applied to all aircraft ground movements.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: atxi,taix,taxxi,ttaxi,txai
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of taxi - 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "taxi"?
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Using “taxi”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-A-X-I - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈtæk.si/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “TX” - see the side-by-side comparison. taxi vs TX
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.