zai
[t͡sai̯]
"zai" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“zai” is uncommon English (frequency #63,389 among 265 “Z” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #63,389
- frequency rank, English
- 265
- “Z” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - extremely skilled; talented.
Corpus desk
Index EN-zai · zai · English
zai · rank #63,389 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #63,389
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 265
- PHOTO-FINISH Yukio
Nearest frequency peer: Yukio (-1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “zai”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Yorkie
Yorkie
36,616 corpus weight
- Yukio
Yukio
36,613 corpus weight
- zai
zai
36,612 corpus weight
- ZF
ZF
36,611 corpus weight
- Zhivago
Zhivago
36,610 corpus weight
- Zohar
Zohar
36,609 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “zai” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | zai |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | [t͡sai̯] |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #63,389 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “zai” in English
Rare enough to double-check
zai is uncommon English at frequency #63,389 among 265 “Z” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed [t͡sai̯]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "extremely skilled; talented.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for zai, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Hokkien 在 (chāi, “steady”); likely a shortening of Hokkien 在穩 /在稳 (chāi-ún, “experienced and composed; safe; reliable; trustworthy”), in the sense of a person being solid, experienced, and collected under pressure. The correct English form is zai, spelled Z-A-I.
Definition
- 1extremely skilled; talented.
Etymology
From Hokkien 在 (chāi, “steady”); likely a shortening of Hokkien 在穩 /在稳 (chāi-ún, “experienced and composed; safe; reliable; trustworthy”), in the sense of a person being solid, experienced, and collected under pressure.
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "zai", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).