wagtail
noun
wagtail is spelled W-A-G-T-A-I-L: 7 letters. It appears about once in every 10 million words in written English, the 92,628th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, wagtail means “Any of various small passerine birds, principally of genus Motacilla, of the Old World, notable for their long tails” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of wagtail is wagtails.
How many letters and syllables are in wagtail?
| Letters | 7: W-A-G-T-A-I-L |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 10 million words; the 92,628th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is wagtail?
Wagtail appears about once in every 10 million words in written English, the 92,628th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce wagtail?
- US
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-wagtail.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of wagtail
- wagtails plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does wagtail mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any of various small passerine birds, principally of genus Motacilla, of the Old World, notable for their long tails.
- 2
Ellipsis of wagtail platy.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Wagtail in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense various small passerine birds:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | hochequeue, bergeronnette |
| German | Stelze |
| Portuguese | alvéola, alvéloa, lavandisca, lavandeira |
| Spanish | lavandera |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does wagtail come from?
From a partial suppletion of Middle English wagstert (literally “wag-tail”), equivalent to wag + tail.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).