baleful
/ˈbeɪl.fəl/adjective
baleful is spelled B-A-L-E-F-U-L: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 7 million words in written English, the 79,518th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, baleful means “Portending evil; ominous” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in baleful?
| Letters | 7: B-A-L-E-F-U-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 7 million words; the 79,518th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is baleful?
Baleful appears about once in every 7 million words in written English, the 79,518th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce baleful?
- /ˈbeɪl.fəl/
Baleful has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-baleful.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of baleful
- more baleful comparative
- most baleful superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does baleful mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Portending evil; ominous.
I learned the speech of birds; now every tree Screams out to me a baleful prophecy.
- 2
obsoleteMiserable, wretched, distressed, suffering.
- 3
obsoleteDeadly, mortal.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Baleful in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense ominous:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does baleful come from?
From Middle English baleful, balful, baluful, from Old English bealuful, which was equivalent to bealu + -ful. By surface analysis, bale (“evil, woe”) + -ful. See bale for further etymology.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).