tongued
/tʌŋd/
"tongued" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tongued” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #45,127 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #45,127
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Resembling a tongue.
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 | tongued |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /tʌŋd/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #45,127 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tongued” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for tongued is 7 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /tʌŋd/. Corpus data places it at rank #45,127 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for tongued, with forms such as "otngued", "tnogued", and "tognued". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "tongues", "toned", "tongue", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English tonged, tunged, equivalent to tongue + -ed. Compare Old English ġetynġe (“skilled with speech, talkative, eloquent”). The correct English form is tongued, spelled T-O-N-G-U-E-D.
Definition
- 1Resembling a tongue.
- 2Having a particular manner of speaking.
- 3Having a tongue for towing.
Etymology
From Middle English tonged, tunged, equivalent to tongue + -ed. Compare Old English ġetynġe (“skilled with speech, talkative, eloquent”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: otngued,tnogued,tognued,tongeud,tonggued,tongude,tonguedd,tonngued,tonuged,ttongued
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tongued - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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Using “tongued”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-O-N-G-U-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /tʌŋd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “tongues” - see the side-by-side comparison. tongued vs tongues
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.