toady
/ˈtəʊ.di/
"toady" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“toady” is uncommon English (frequency #80,965 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #80,965
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A sycophant who flatters others to gain personal advantage, or an obsequious, servile lackey or minion.
Corpus desk
Index EN-toady · toady · English
toady · rank #80,965 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #80,965
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH Todt
Nearest frequency peer: Todt (+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.
Long-tail ranks near “toady”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Tippecanoe
Tippecanoe
19,039 corpus weight
- titted
titted
19,038 corpus weight
- toady
toady
19,036 corpus weight
- Todt
Todt
19,035 corpus weight
- tollway
tollway
19,034 corpus weight
- toolset
toolset
19,032 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “toady” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | toady |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtəʊ.di/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #80,965 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “toady” in English
Rare enough to double-check
toady is uncommon English at frequency #80,965 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈtəʊ.di/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for toady in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From a shortening of toadeater + -y. The correct English form is toady, spelled T-O-A-D-Y.
Definition
- 1A sycophant who flatters others to gain personal advantage, or an obsequious, servile lackey or minion.
- 2A coarse, rustic woman.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how toady appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
"But who is she, can you tell me?" / "Some fair-skinned speculation of old Montreville's, I suppose, that she has got either to toady herself, or take in some of her black friends with.—Is it possible you have never heard of old Mother Montreville?"
Before I had been standing at the window five minutes, they somehow conveyed to me that they were all toadies and humbugs, but that each of them pretended not to know that the others were toadies and humbugs: because the admission that he or she did know it, would have made him or her out to be a toady and a humbug.
Etymology
From a shortening of toadeater + -y.
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 "toady", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).