winnowing fan
"winnowing-fan" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“winnowing fan” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A specially shaped winnowing basket, in which grain is shaken in the process of winnowing, with the shape of the basket allowing the chaff to spill out more readily.
Corpus desk
Index EN-winnowing-fan · winnowing fan · English
winnowing fan · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-4 4 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | winnowing fan |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “winnowing fan” in English
Rare enough to double-check
winnowing fan is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for winnowing fan in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is winnowing fan, spelled W-I-N-N-O-W-I-N-G- -F-A-N.
Definition
- 1A specially shaped winnowing basket, in which grain is shaken in the process of winnowing, with the shape of the basket allowing the chaff to spill out more readily.
- 2Any fan device, including those electrically powered, used in winnowing.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how winnowing fan appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The wind is the natural winnower, but man can help the wind by exposing the mixed chaff and grain. This he throws up on the winnowing fan against the wind, the wind blows away the chaff and the heavier grain falls to the ground. The best instrument with which to do this is naturally an oar-like pole, broadened at the end to serve as a shovel. Such an inst…
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.