winky
/ˈwɪŋki/
"winky" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“winky” is an uncommon English word, ranked #55,860 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #55,860
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Tending to wink; winking.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | winky |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈwɪŋki/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #55,860 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “winky” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for winky is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈwɪŋki/. Corpus data places it at rank #55,860 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Tending to wink; winking.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for winky, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From wink + -y. The correct English form is winky, spelled W-I-N-K-Y.
Definition
- 1Tending to wink; winking.
Etymology
From wink + -y.
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
How do you spell "winky"?
What does "winky" mean?
How do you pronounce "winky"?
What is the origin of the word "winky"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “winky”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-I-N-K-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈwɪŋki/ (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.