tourniquet
/ˈtʊə.nɪ.keɪ/
"tourniquet" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tourniquet” is uncommon English (frequency #50,849 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #50,849
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A tightly-compressed bandage used to stop bleeding by stopping the flow of blood through a large artery in a limb.
Corpus desk
Index EN-tourniquet · tourniquet · English
tourniquet · rank #50,849 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #50,849
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH tourmaline
Nearest frequency peer: tourmaline (-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 “tourniquet”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- tiffin
tiffin
49,155 corpus weight
- timepiece
timepiece
49,154 corpus weight
- tourmaline
tourmaline
49,153 corpus weight
- tourniquet
tourniquet
49,152 corpus weight
- TRAC
TRAC
49,151 corpus weight
- transpose
transpose
49,150 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “tourniquet” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tourniquet |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtʊə.nɪ.keɪ/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #50,849 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “tourniquet” in English
Rare enough to double-check
tourniquet is uncommon English at frequency #50,849 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈtʊə.nɪ.keɪ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for tourniquet, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French tourniquet, from tourner (“to turn”). The correct English form is tourniquet, spelled T-O-U-R-N-I-Q-U-E-T.
Definition
- 1A tightly-compressed bandage used to stop bleeding by stopping the flow of blood through a large artery in a limb.
- 2Any of several similar methods of clamping components into position.
- 3A turnstile.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how tourniquet appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
His forefathers had been, as a rule, professional men—physicians and lawyers; his grandfather died under the walls of Chapultepec Castle while twisting a tourniquet for a cursing dragoon; an uncle remained indefinitely at Malvern Hill;[…].
[…] Bull was in the bathroom taking his fix, clutching his old black necktie in his teeth for a tourniquet and jabbing with the needle into his woesome arm with the thousand holes;[…]
Etymology
From French tourniquet, from tourner (“to turn”).
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 "tourniquet", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).