cheekily

adv

"cheekily" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“cheekily” is uncommon English (frequency #92,446 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#92,446
frequency rank, English
5,599
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - In a cheeky or impudent manner.

Corpus desk

Index EN-cheekily · cheekily · English

cheekily · rank #92,446 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #92,446
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,599
  • PHOTO-FINISH Charleville

Nearest frequency peer: Charleville (-2 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 “cheekily”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “cheekily” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for cheekily
PropertyValue
Headwordcheekily
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdverb
Letters8
Frequency rank#92,446
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “cheekily” in English

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).cheekilyfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “Charleville” (#92,444), “centeredness” (#92,440), “chintz” (#92,452). Among 5,599 “C” headwords, “cheekily” is #92,446. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

cheekily is uncommon English at frequency #92,446 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anadverb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "In a cheeky or impudent manner.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for cheekily, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From cheeky + -ly. The correct English form is cheekily, spelled C-H-E-E-K-I-L-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    In a cheeky or impudent manner.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. The time passed. The two mice, careering wildly, scampered cheekily over his slippers. He had not moved a muscle.
  2. Now, Vimeo user Alejandro Prullansky has compiled a super cut of Anderson's slo-mo shots from across the director's filmography, charmingly – and maybe a tad cheekily – set to The Shins' "New Slang."

Etymology

From cheeky + -ly.

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

How do you spell "cheekily"?
"cheekily" is spelled C-H-E-E-K-I-L-Y.
What does "cheekily" mean?
As an adverb, "cheekily" means: In a cheeky or impudent manner.
What is the origin of the word "cheekily"?
From cheeky + -ly. See the full etymology section above for more details.
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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cheekily", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list