testy
/ˈtɛsti/
"testy" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“testy” is uncommon English (frequency #50,835 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #50,835
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Easily annoyed, irritable.
Corpus desk
Index EN-testy · testy · English
testy · rank #50,835 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #50,835
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH Tecumseh
Nearest frequency peer: Tecumseh (-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 “testy”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- taupe
taupe
49,169 corpus weight
- Tecumseh
Tecumseh
49,167 corpus weight
- testy
testy
49,166 corpus weight
- Thabo
Thabo
49,165 corpus weight
- Thalia
Thalia
49,164 corpus weight
- theorize
theorize
49,163 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “testy” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | testy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈtɛsti/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #50,835 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “testy” in English
Rare enough to double-check
testy is uncommon English at frequency #50,835 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈtɛsti/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for testy in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Middle English testif (“headstrong”), from Old French testu, from teste (“head”) + -u. Compare modern French tête (“head”), têtu (“stubborn”). The correct English form is testy, spelled T-E-S-T-Y.
Definition
- 1Easily annoyed, irritable.
- 2Marked by impatience or ill humor.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how testy appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He made testy remarks.
Otherwise, we could end up with a repeat of what happened with social media companies after the 2016 election — a collision of Silicon Valley power and Washington ignorance, which resulted in nothing but gridlock and testy hearings.
Etymology
Middle English testif (“headstrong”), from Old French testu, from teste (“head”) + -u. Compare modern French tête (“head”), têtu (“stubborn”).
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "testy", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).