thin-skinned

adj

"thin-skinned" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“thin-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
12
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Overly sensitive to criticism; quick to take offence; irritable; touchy.

Corpus desk

Index EN-thin-skinned · thin-skinned · English

thin-skinned · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 12 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 thin-skinned
PropertyValue
Headwordthin-skinned
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

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

thin-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

thin-skinned is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for thin-skinned, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is thin-skinned, spelled T-H-I-N---S-K-I-N-N-E-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    Overly sensitive to criticism; quick to take offence; irritable; touchy.
  2. 2
    Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see thin, skinned.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. She's rather thin-skinned when it comes to comments about her work.
  2. You must handle thin-skinned fruits carefully to avoid bruising them.

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 "thin-skinned"?
"thin-skinned" is spelled T-H-I-N---S-K-I-N-N-E-D.
What does "thin-skinned" mean?
As an adjective, "thin-skinned" means: Overly sensitive to criticism; quick to take offence; irritable; touchy.
What language does "thin-skinned" come from?
"thin-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