teddy bear
"teddy-bear" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“teddy bear” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A plush toy in the shape of a bear.
Corpus desk
Index EN-teddy-bear · teddy bear · English
teddy bear · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "T" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | teddy bear |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “teddy bear” in English
Rare enough to double-check
teddy bear is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for teddy bear in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Morris Michtom, the owner of a candy store in Brooklyn N.Y., who made the first “Teddy Bear” in the year 1902 in honor of then American President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt when he had heard that he had refused to shoot a bear cub on one of his hunting… The correct English form is teddy bear, spelled T-E-D-D-Y- -B-E-A-R.
Definition
- 1A plush toy in the shape of a bear.
- 2A lovable, endearing, large, strong, hairy, or sweet man, particularly one who is gentle in spite of a burly or gruff appearance.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how teddy bear appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
1988, Michael Weikath, "Rise and Fall", Helloween, Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part II. The king of Los Angeles / Bought himself a teddy bear / And the queen became shameless / She did it with a chair
The origin of Paddington (the bear, not the station) dates to 1956 when author Michael Bond (1926-2017) spotted a lonesome teddy bear on the shelf of a store near the station. It was Christmas Eve, so he bought the solitary bear for his wife.
Etymology
From Morris Michtom, the owner of a candy store in Brooklyn N.Y., who made the first “Teddy Bear” in the year 1902 in honor of then American President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt when he had heard that he had refused to shoot a bear cub on one of his hunting trips.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.