thumbs-down
"thumbs-down" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“thumbs-down” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To disapprove with a thumbs-down sign.
Corpus desk
Index EN-thumbs-down · thumbs-down · English
thumbs-down · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-2 2 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 | thumbs-down |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “thumbs-down” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
thumbs-down is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To disapprove with a thumbs-down sign.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for thumbs-down, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is thumbs-down, spelled T-H-U-M-B-S---D-O-W-N.
Definition
- 1To disapprove with a thumbs-down sign.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how thumbs-down appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He stood outside the dressing room and thumbs-upped or thumbs-downed each choice.
Antonyms
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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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.