Tico
"tico" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Tico” is uncommon English (frequency #73,719 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #73,719
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Costa Rican
Corpus desk
Index EN-tico · Tico · English
Tico · rank #73,719 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #73,719
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH tilled
Nearest frequency peer: tilled (+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 neighbourhood for “Tico”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- thuggish
thuggish
26,287 corpus weight
- Thuringia
Thuringia
26,286 corpus weight
- Tico
Tico
26,282 corpus weight
- tilled
tilled
26,281 corpus weight
- tiptoes
tiptoes
26,277 corpus weight
- TMD
TMD
26,276 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “Tico” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Tico |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #73,719 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Tico” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Tico is uncommon English at frequency #73,719 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Costa Rican".
No misspelling variants are generated for Tico in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Spanish tico which arose from the frequent use of the diminutive suffix -tico in Costa Rica. The correct English form is Tico, spelled T-I-C-O.
Definition
- 1Costa Rican
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how Tico appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
October 1946, National Geographic The musical intonation and liberal use of diminutives make Tico Spanish particularly effective for expressing sentiment and affection.
Etymology
From Spanish tico which arose from the frequent use of the diminutive suffix -tico in Costa Rica.
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 "Tico", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
You've looked up "Tico". Here's where to go from here.
- Usage frequency rank #73,719 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "T" letter cohort. T–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.