teat

/tiːt/

//tiːt// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"teat" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“teat” is uncommon English (frequency #53,293 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#53,293
frequency rank, English
3,151
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The projection of a mammary gland from which, on female therian mammals, milk is secreted.

Corpus desk

Index EN-teat · teat · English

teat · rank #53,293 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #53,293
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,151
  • PHOTO-FINISH techie

Nearest frequency peer: techie (+1 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 “teat”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for teat
PropertyValue
Headwordteat
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/tiːt/
Letters4
Frequency rank#53,293
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “teat” 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).teatfalls 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: “techie” (#53,294), “TBM” (#53,291), “teleprompter” (#53,295). Among 3,151 “T” headwords, “teat” is #53,293. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

teat is uncommon English at frequency #53,293 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /tiːt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for teat in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English tete, from Old French tete (“teat”) (compare French tette), from Frankish *tittā, *tittō, from Proto-Germanic *tittaz (“teat; nipple; breast”), ultimately of expressive origin. Compare Old High German zizza ("teat"; modern German Zitze),… The correct English form is teat, spelled T-E-A-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    The projection of a mammary gland from which, on female therian mammals, milk is secreted.
  2. 2
    Something resembling a teat, such as a small protuberance or nozzle.
  3. 3
    An artificial nipple used for bottle-feeding infants.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how teat appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Milk formed their chief diet, and this they were supposed to imbibe from the witch herself, from a third "teat" which had been made beneath the arm by a nip from the Devil's pincers.

Etymology

From Middle English tete, from Old French tete (“teat”) (compare French tette), from Frankish *tittā, *tittō, from Proto-Germanic *tittaz (“teat; nipple; breast”), ultimately of expressive origin. Compare Old High German zizza ("teat"; modern German Zitze), whence also Italian zizza (“teat”). It heavily displaced Old English titt, a cognate of the same origin, which survives as tit, but in more vulgar use. Compare Dutch tiet and German Zitze (“teat”).

This word in other languages

pezón(Español)trayon(Français)Brustwarze(Deutsch)mamilo(Português)

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 "teat"?
"teat" is spelled T-E-A-T. The IPA pronunciation is /tiːt/.
What does "teat" mean?
As a noun, "teat" means: The projection of a mammary gland from which, on female therian mammals, milk is secreted.
How do you pronounce "teat"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "teat" is /tiːt/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "teat"?
From Middle English tete, from Old French tete (“teat”) (compare French tette), from Frankish *tittā, *tittō, from Proto-Germanic *tittaz (“teat; nipple; breast”), ultimately of expressive origin. Compare Old High German zizza ("teat"; modern Germ... 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 "teat", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

toki#53,304trop#53,310twee#53,315UCSD#53,318

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list