thick-skinned

adj

"thick-skinned" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“thick-skinned” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Having a thick skin.

Corpus desk

Index EN-thick-skinned · thick-skinned · English

thick-skinned · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-3 3 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.

Key facts for thick-skinned
PropertyValue
Headwordthick-skinned
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “thick-skinned” in English

thick-skinnedranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

thick-skinned is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

thick-skinned has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is thick-skinned, spelled T-H-I-C-K---S-K-I-N-N-E-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    Having a thick skin.
  2. 2
    Not easily offended.
  3. 3
    Insensitive to the feelings of others; callous.
  4. 4
    Obtuse, thick, intellectually dull or insensitive.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. They that are ſo thick skinned as ſtill to credit the ſtory of the Phœnix, may ſay ſomething for animall burning: […]

Antonyms

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "thick-skinned"?
"thick-skinned" is spelled T-H-I-C-K---S-K-I-N-N-E-D.
What does "thick-skinned" mean?
As an adjective, "thick-skinned" means: Having a thick skin.
What language does "thick-skinned" come from?
"thick-skinned" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list