big enough and ugly enough
"big-enough-and-ugly-enough" is a 22-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“big enough and ugly enough” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 26
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Mature, grown-up, old enough (with the implication that one can look after oneself and make one's own decisions).
Corpus desk
Index EN-big-enough-and-ugly-enou · big enough and ugly enough · English
big enough and ugly enough · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 26 letters
- VOW-10 10 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | big enough and ugly enough |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 26 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “big enough and ugly enough” in English
Rare enough to double-check
big enough and ugly enough is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Mature, grown-up, old enough (with the implication that one can look after oneself and make one's own decisions).".
big enough and ugly enough doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From the notion that youth, especially children, have a more beautiful and endearing appearance, thus maturity ought to make one not only bigger, but uglier too; though, in some cases, the opposite is true (see ugly duckling and its associated fairy tale, w… The correct English form is big enough and ugly enough, spelled B-I-G- -E-N-O-U-G-H- -A-N-D- -U-G-L-Y- -E-N-O-U-G-H.
Definition
- 1Mature, grown-up, old enough (with the implication that one can look after oneself and make one's own decisions).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how big enough and ugly enough appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Her aunt answered, 'You just go off my child. There are two young women here who are big enough and ugly enough to help me with the dishes.'
Don't worry – he'll come home. He's big enough and ugly enough to look after himself.
Etymology
From the notion that youth, especially children, have a more beautiful and endearing appearance, thus maturity ought to make one not only bigger, but uglier too; though, in some cases, the opposite is true (see ugly duckling and its associated fairy tale, which illustrate such a case).
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.