agelast
/ˈæd͡ʒəˌlæst/
"agelast" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“agelast” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - One who never laughs (especially at jokes); a mirthless person.
Corpus desk
Index EN-agelast · agelast · English
agelast · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "A" 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 | agelast |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈæd͡ʒəˌlæst/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “agelast” in English
Rare enough to double-check
agelast is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈæd͡ʒəˌlæst/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "One who never laughs (especially at jokes); a mirthless person.".
No misspelling variants are generated for agelast in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀγέλαστος (agélastos, “not laughing”), from γελάω (geláō, “to laugh”). Attributed to a French coinage by François Rabelais (ca.1483–1494—1553). The correct English form is agelast, spelled A-G-E-L-A-S-T.
Definition
- 1One who never laughs (especially at jokes); a mirthless person.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how agelast appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
As a real agelast in a comedy, he is beaten. The beating of an agelast is the most important point of the comedy.
Declaring with Doumergue that "Rabelais and Calvin (and Olivétan) were the creators of French literary prose,"²⁵ Bakhtin adds "Even the agelast Calvin wrote a pamphlet about relics with a certain comic overtone."²⁶ The single, and unusual word "agelast" summarizes the popular view of John Calvin: a person who does not laugh or smile; someone who cannot en…
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀγέλαστος (agélastos, “not laughing”), from γελάω (geláō, “to laugh”). Attributed to a French coinage by François Rabelais (ca.1483–1494—1553).
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.