atrabilious
/ˌæ.tɹəˈbɪl.i.əs/
"atrabilious" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“atrabilious” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Having an excess of black bile.
Corpus desk
Index EN-atrabilious · atrabilious · English
atrabilious · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-6 6 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 | atrabilious |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˌæ.tɹəˈbɪl.i.əs/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “atrabilious” in English
Rare enough to double-check
atrabilious is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˌæ.tɹəˈbɪl.i.əs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
atrabilious has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin ātra bīlis (“black bile”) (āter (“dark, black”) + bīlis (“bile”)) + -ous (“full of”). The correct English form is atrabilious, spelled A-T-R-A-B-I-L-I-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Having an excess of black bile.
- 2Characterized by melancholy.
- 3Ill-natured; malevolent; cantankerous.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how atrabilious appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
[I] could see nothing in the evidence which did persuade me to think them other than poor, melancholy, envious, mischievous, ill-disposed, ill-dieted, atrabilious constitutions.
In like manner, all the atrabilious diſeaſes require a regimen, nearly ſimilar, during the interval of the fits, to alter the atrabilious conſtitution which gives riſe to them all; but each requires a ſpecial method of cure, peculiarly adapted to the organ on which the fluxion falls after the fit is formed. Thus, e.g. the piles require a treatment differe…
Etymology
From Latin ātra bīlis (“black bile”) (āter (“dark, black”) + bīlis (“bile”)) + -ous (“full of”).
Synonyms
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.