touch down

verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"touch-down" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“touch down” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To land an aircraft or spacecraft.

Key facts for touch down
PropertyValue
Headwordtouch down
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “touch down” sits in English frequency

touch down falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for touch down is 10 letters long, classified as a verb. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for touch down, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is touch down, spelled T-O-U-C-H- -D-O-W-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    To land an aircraft or spacecraft.
  2. 2
    To score a touchdown
  3. 3
    To score a try.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "touch down"?
"touch down" is spelled T-O-U-C-H- -D-O-W-N.
What does "touch down" mean?
As a verb, "touch down" means: To land an aircraft or spacecraft.
What language does "touch down" come from?
"touch down" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “touch down”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is T-O-U-C-H- -D-O-W-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list