childly

adj

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

The verdict

“childly” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
7
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of or pertaining to a young child; childlike

Corpus desk

Index EN-childly · childly · English

childly · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "C" 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 childly
PropertyValue
Headwordchildly
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters7
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “childly” in English

childlyfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

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

Rare enough to double-check

childly is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Of or pertaining to a young child; childlike".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for childly, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English childly, childlich, childli, from Old English ċildlīċ (“childly, childlish”), equivalent to child + -ly. The correct English form is childly, spelled C-H-I-L-D-L-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to a young child; childlike

Etymology

From Middle English childly, childlich, childli, from Old English ċildlīċ (“childly, childlish”), equivalent to child + -ly.

Synonyms

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 "childly"?
"childly" is spelled C-H-I-L-D-L-Y.
What does "childly" mean?
As an adjective, "childly" means: Of or pertaining to a young child; childlike
What is the origin of the word "childly"?
From Middle English childly, childlich, childli, from Old English ċildlīċ (“childly, childlish”), equivalent to child + -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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list