umami
/uˈmɑːmi/
"umami" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“umami” is an uncommon English word, ranked #61,184 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #61,184
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - One of the five basic tastes, the savory taste of foods such as seaweed, cured fish, aged cheeses and meats.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | umami |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /uˈmɑːmi/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #61,184 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “umami” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for umami is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /uˈmɑːmi/. Corpus data places it at rank #61,184 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "One of the five basic tastes, the savory taste of foods such as seaweed, cured fish, aged cheeses and meats.".
umami doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Japanese 旨味, うまみ (umami), from 旨い (umai, “delicious”), which describes the quality of a pleasant, savory taste. The correct English form is umami, spelled U-M-A-M-I.
Definition
- 1One of the five basic tastes, the savory taste of foods such as seaweed, cured fish, aged cheeses and meats.
Etymology
From Japanese 旨味, うまみ (umami), from 旨い (umai, “delicious”), which describes the quality of a pleasant, savory taste.
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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Using “umami”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is U-M-A-M-I - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /uˈmɑːmi/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.