bristly
/ˈbɹɪsli/
"bristly" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bristly” is uncommon English (frequency #75,681 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #75,681
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Covered with bristles.
Corpus desk
Index EN-bristly · bristly · English
bristly · rank #75,681 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #75,681
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH Brion
Nearest frequency peer: Brion (-1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “bristly”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- brigand
brigand
24,322 corpus weight
- Brion
Brion
24,321 corpus weight
- bristly
bristly
24,320 corpus weight
- broadleaf
broadleaf
24,319 corpus weight
- brushy
brushy
24,315 corpus weight
- bullfight
bullfight
24,313 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “bristly” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bristly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈbɹɪsli/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #75,681 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “bristly” in English
Rare enough to double-check
bristly is uncommon English at frequency #75,681 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈbɹɪsli/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for bristly in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English bristli, brustly, equivalent to bristle + -y. The correct English form is bristly, spelled B-R-I-S-T-L-Y.
Definition
- 1Covered with bristles.
- 2Easily antagonized; irascible; prone to bristling.
Etymology
From Middle English bristli, brustly, equivalent to bristle + -y.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bristly", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).