thin as a rake
"thin-as-a-rake" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“thin as a rake” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as an adjective - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Incredibly thin; at an unhealthy-looking level of thinness.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | thin as a rake |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “thin as a rake” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for thin as a rake is 14 letters long, classified as an adjective. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Incredibly thin; at an unhealthy-looking level of thinness.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for thin as a rake, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Alteration of earlier lean as a rake, from Middle English lene as a rake; the last element in is potentially an modification of either Middle English *rak (“skinny animal”) (from Old Norse hrak) or rak (“rack”) after rake (“rake”), though it might merely re… The correct English form is thin as a rake, spelled T-H-I-N- -A-S- -A- -R-A-K-E.
Definition
- 1Incredibly thin; at an unhealthy-looking level of thinness.
Etymology
Alteration of earlier lean as a rake, from Middle English lene as a rake; the last element in is potentially an modification of either Middle English *rak (“skinny animal”) (from Old Norse hrak) or rak (“rack”) after rake (“rake”), though it might merely represent that word.
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
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Using “thin as a rake”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-H-I-N- -A-S- -A- -R-A-K-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.