thin on the ground
"thin-on-the-ground" is a 15-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“thin on the ground” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 18
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Scarce; difficult to find.
Corpus desk
Index EN-thin-on-the-ground · thin on the ground · English
thin on the ground · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 18 letters
- VOW-5 5 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 | thin on the ground |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 18 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “thin on the ground” in English
Rare enough to double-check
thin on the ground is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Scarce; difficult to find.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for thin on the ground in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is thin on the ground, spelled T-H-I-N- -O-N- -T-H-E- -G-R-O-U-N-D.
Definition
- 1Scarce; difficult to find.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how thin on the ground appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
She explains: "Customers are sadly thin on the ground, but my community and charity work are very much still part of me. [...]."
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.