tempura
/ˈtɛmpʊɹə/
"tempura" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tempura” is uncommon English (frequency #53,907 among 27,828 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #53,907
- frequency rank, English
- 27,828
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A Japanese dish made by deep-frying vegetables, seafood, or other foods in a light batter.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tempura |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtɛmpʊɹə/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #53,907 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tempura” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
tempura is uncommon English at frequency #53,907 among 27,828 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈtɛmpʊɹə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A Japanese dish made by deep-frying vegetables, seafood, or other foods in a light batter.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for tempura, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Japanese 天(てん)麩(ぷ)羅(ら) (tenpura), from Portuguese, ultimately from Latin. Different dictionaries link two different original terms: * Portuguese tempero (“seasoning”) or tempera (“he/she/it seasons; season!”), third-person present singular or … The correct English form is tempura, spelled T-E-M-P-U-R-A.
Definition
- 1A Japanese dish made by deep-frying vegetables, seafood, or other foods in a light batter.
Etymology
Borrowed from Japanese 天(てん)麩(ぷ)羅(ら) (tenpura), from Portuguese, ultimately from Latin. Different dictionaries link two different original terms: * Portuguese tempero (“seasoning”) or tempera (“he/she/it seasons; season!”), third-person present singular or imperative tense of temperar (“to season, to temper”), from Latin temperare (“to mix, to temper”). * Portuguese têmpora (“Ember days”), from Latin tempora, plural of tempus (“time; period”). When Portuguese explorers (mostly Jesuit missionaries) arrived in Japan, they abstained from eating beef, pork, and poultry during the Ember days, a Catholic series of holidays. Instead, they ate fried vegetables and fish. This was the first contact of the Japanese with fried food, and since then they began associating the Portuguese word têmpora (which they pronounced tenpura) with such food.
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.
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Using “tempura”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-E-M-P-U-R-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈtɛmpʊɹə/ (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.