bad luck

noun

"bad-luck" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“bad luck” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
8
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An undesirable turn of events (such as an accident); misfortune.

Corpus desk

Index EN-bad-luck · bad luck · English

bad luck · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "B" 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.

Key facts for bad luck
PropertyValue
Headwordbad luck
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters8
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “bad luck” in English

bad luckranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

bad luck is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An undesirable turn of events (such as an accident); misfortune.".

Zero misspellings are on record for bad luck in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is bad luck, spelled B-A-D- -L-U-C-K.

Definition

  1. 1
    An undesirable turn of events (such as an accident); misfortune.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how bad luck appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. McCarthy will point to their bad luck but the statistics now show that Wolves have lost four league matches and have claimed one point from a possible 15 - so it may prove to be another difficult season for the Midlands side.

Synonyms

Antonyms

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "bad luck"?
"bad luck" is spelled B-A-D- -L-U-C-K.
What does "bad luck" mean?
As a noun, "bad luck" means: An undesirable turn of events (such as an accident); misfortune.
What language does "bad luck" come from?
"bad luck" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list