tidal wave
/ˈtaɪdəlweɪv/
"tidal-wave" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tidal wave” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A large and sudden rise and fall in the tide.
Corpus desk
Index EN-tidal-wave · tidal wave · English
tidal wave · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 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 | tidal wave |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtaɪdəlweɪv/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “tidal wave” in English
Rare enough to double-check
tidal wave is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈtaɪdəlweɪv/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 6 senses are on record.
tidal wave doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is tidal wave, spelled T-I-D-A-L- -W-A-V-E.
Definition
- 1A large and sudden rise and fall in the tide.
- 2A large, sudden, and disastrous wave of water caused by a tremendous disturbance in the ocean; a tsunami. (See Usage notes below.)
- 3A large, sudden inundation of water from the storm surge, or waves of that surge; a sudden surge of river water.
- 4A sudden and powerful surge.
- 5A crest of ocean water; a wave.
- 6A crest of ocean water resulting from tidal forces.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how tidal wave appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The last tidal wave here killed twenty and left thousands homeless.
During the day conditions worsened quickly—for example, a 2-6-0 on the Uckfield line suddenly encountered flood water high enough to enter its ashpan and extinguish its fire—until lock gates up-river at Barcombe gave way and a tidal wave rolled down the valley meeting head-on a spring tide rolling up from the coast.
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.