tearjerker
"tearjerker" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tearjerker” is an uncommon English word, ranked #93,223 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #93,223
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An emotionally charged film, novel, song, opera, television episode, etc., usually with one or more sad passages or ending.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tearjerker |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #93,223 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tearjerker” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for tearjerker is 10 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #93,223 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "An emotionally charged film, novel, song, opera, television episode, etc., usually with one or more sad passages or ending.".
No misspelling variants are generated for tearjerker in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From tear + jerker, so termed because it suggests one is likely to cry during its performance. The correct English form is tearjerker, spelled T-E-A-R-J-E-R-K-E-R.
Definition
- 1An emotionally charged film, novel, song, opera, television episode, etc., usually with one or more sad passages or ending.
Etymology
From tear + jerker, so termed because it suggests one is likely to cry during its performance.
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 “tearjerker”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-E-A-R-J-E-R-K-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.