whaddayacallit

noun

"whaddayacallit" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“whaddayacallit” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
14
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A metasyntactic term used for any object whose actual name the speaker does not know or cannot remember.

Corpus desk

Index EN-whaddayacallit · whaddayacallit · English

whaddayacallit · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 14 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "W" 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.

Key facts for whaddayacallit
PropertyValue
Headwordwhaddayacallit
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters14
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “whaddayacallit” in English

whaddayacallitranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

whaddayacallit is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A metasyntactic term used for any object whose actual name the speaker does not know or cannot remember.".

No misspelling variants are generated for whaddayacallit in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From what do you call it. Compare whatdoyoucallit. The correct English form is whaddayacallit, spelled W-H-A-D-D-A-Y-A-C-A-L-L-I-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    A metasyntactic term used for any object whose actual name the speaker does not know or cannot remember.

Etymology

From what do you call it. Compare whatdoyoucallit.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "whaddayacallit"?
"whaddayacallit" is spelled W-H-A-D-D-A-Y-A-C-A-L-L-I-T.
What does "whaddayacallit" mean?
As a noun, "whaddayacallit" means: A metasyntactic term used for any object whose actual name the speaker does not know or cannot remember.
What is the origin of the word "whaddayacallit"?
From what do you call it. Compare whatdoyoucallit. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list