under the radar
"under-the-radar" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“under the radar” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a prep_phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 15
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Without attracting notice; in an undetected or secretive manner.
Corpus desk
Index EN-under-the-radar · under the radar · English
under the radar · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 15 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "U" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | under the radar |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Prep_phrase |
| Letters | 15 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “under the radar” in English
Rare enough to double-check
under the radar is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aprep_phrase. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Without attracting notice; in an undetected or secretive manner.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for under the radar in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: An allusion to flying an airplane at an altitude too low for radar detection. The correct English form is under the radar, spelled U-N-D-E-R- -T-H-E- -R-A-D-A-R.
Definition
- 1Without attracting notice; in an undetected or secretive manner.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how under the radar appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Institutional change has not happened. But it's done quietly under the radar at lots of places.
Look, we keep our hand in with Maitland as well as this Partick thing. But we do it under the radar.
Etymology
An allusion to flying an airplane at an altitude too low for radar detection.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.