umami
/uˈmɑːmi/
"umami" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“umami” is uncommon English (frequency #61,184 among 1,433 “U” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #61,184
- frequency rank, English
- 1,433
- “U” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - One of the five basic tastes, the savory taste of foods such as seaweed, cured fish, aged cheeses and meats.
Corpus desk
Index EN-umami · umami · English
umami · rank #61,184 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #61,184
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,433
- PHOTO-FINISH umpteenth
Nearest frequency peer: umpteenth (+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 “umami”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Turkana
Turkana
38,821 corpus weight
- umami
umami
38,817 corpus weight
- umpteenth
umpteenth
38,816 corpus weight
- unacceptably
unacceptably
38,815 corpus weight
- uncommitted
uncommitted
38,814 corpus weight
- unconstrain…
unconstrained
38,813 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “umami” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| 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) |
Long-tail rank of “umami” in English
Rare enough to double-check
umami is uncommon English at frequency #61,184 among 1,433 “U” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /uˈmɑːmi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how umami appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Umami is the mysterious “fifth taste”—a flavour that has never seemed to fit into the existing categories of sweet, sour, salty and bitter. South-east Asian chefs have exploited it throughout history—it's an essential part of the taste of seaweed, among other things[…]
But we are, of course, sweaty, fleshy lady-animals – all fur and umami.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "umami", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).