tup
/tʌp/
"tup" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tup” is uncommon English (frequency #87,930 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #87,930
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A male sheep, a ram.
Corpus desk
Index EN-tup · tup · English
tup · rank #87,930 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #87,930
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH tufa
Nearest frequency peer: tufa (-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 “tup”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Truax
Truax
12,075 corpus weight
- tubule
tubule
12,073 corpus weight
- tufa
tufa
12,072 corpus weight
- tup
tup
12,071 corpus weight
- tweeds
tweeds
12,070 corpus weight
- typists
typists
12,069 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “tup” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tup |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /tʌp/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #87,930 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “tup” in English
Rare enough to double-check
tup is uncommon English at frequency #87,930 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /tʌp/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
tup has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English tupe (compare Scots tuip), origin unknown. The correct English form is tup, spelled T-U-P.
Definition
- 1A male sheep, a ram.
- 2The head of a hammer, and particularly of a steam-driven hammer.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how tup appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
... to tie up rams, which could not be supposed to much used to handling ... having often heard for a proverb, as mad as a tup in an halter
Those familiar with drop forging are accustomed to sizing drop hammers as 1 ton or 5 ton or whatever. This measure of the size is simply the weight of the tup. The total weight of the helve of No 2 is about 6.4 tons.
Etymology
From Middle English tupe (compare Scots tuip), origin unknown.
Synonyms
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 "tup", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).