tic
/tɪk/
"tic" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tic” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #22,244) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #22,244
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A sudden, nonrhythmic motor movement or vocalization.
Corpus desk
Index EN-tic · tic · English
tic · rank #22,244 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #22,244
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH theses
Nearest frequency peer: theses (-1 rank slots)
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.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “tic”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- symmetric
symmetric
77,761 corpus weight
- takin
takin
77,759 corpus weight
- theses
theses
77,758 corpus weight
- tic
tic
77,757 corpus weight
- timeout
timeout
77,756 corpus weight
- tome
tome
77,754 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “tic” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tic |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /tɪk/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #22,244 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “tic”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for tic is neighbouring look-alikes ("to", "TV", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /tɪk/. Frequency #22,244 among 3,151 “T” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
No misspelling variants are generated for tic in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "to", "TV", "TL", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French tic. The correct English form is tic, spelled T-I-C.
Definition
- 1A sudden, nonrhythmic motor movement or vocalization.
- 2Something that is done or produced habitually or characteristically.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how tic appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Tourette syndrome is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by multiple tics. A tic is a sudden, rapid, repetitive, non-rhythmic movement (e.g. eye blinking) or vocalization (e.g. throat clearing).
Boyle revives some of the stylistic tics which found themselves being ripped off by geezer-gangster Britflicks back in the day, but now the freezeframes are briefer, sharper; the movie itself refers back to the original with variant flashback versions of famous scenes, but also Super 8-type images of the boys’ poignant boyhood in primary school.
Etymology
Borrowed from French tic.
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); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tic", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).