comely
/ˈkʌmli/
"comely" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“comely” is an uncommon English word, ranked #62,060 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #62,060
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Attractive; visually pleasing; good-looking.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | comely |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈkʌmli/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #62,060 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “comely” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for comely is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkʌmli/. Corpus data places it at rank #62,060 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
comely has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: The adjective is derived from Middle English comly, comli, cumly, cumlich (“of a person: beautiful, handsome, etc.; of noble birth, bearing, or character; of behaviour: appropriate, becoming; of an event: convenient; favourable; of a thing: beautiful, wonde… The correct English form is comely, spelled C-O-M-E-L-Y.
Definition
- 1Attractive; visually pleasing; good-looking.
- 2Attractive; visually pleasing; good-looking.
- 3Attractive; visually pleasing; good-looking.
- 4Pleasing to the feelings or senses; agreeable, nice, pleasant.
Etymology
The adjective is derived from Middle English comly, comli, cumly, cumlich (“of a person: beautiful, handsome, etc.; of noble birth, bearing, or character; of behaviour: appropriate, becoming; of an event: convenient; favourable; of a thing: beautiful, wonderful; fitting, proper”), from Old English cymlīċ, cȳmlīċ (“beautiful, comely; splendid; convenient”), from cȳme (“beautiful, comely; splendid; exquisite, fine”) + -līċ (suffix meaning ‘like; relating to’ forming adjectives). Cȳme is derived from Proto-Germanic *kūmiz (“delicate; feeble”), from *kūmalīkaz (“dear; pitiful”), probably related to *kūmaz, *kūmijaz (“pitiful; frail, weak”), from Proto-Indo-European *gewH- (“to call, name; to call on, invoke; to cry, cry out”). The word was influenced by come (verb). The verb is derived from the adjective. Cognates Middle Dutch komelick, komlick Middle High German gomelīh, komelīh
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); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
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Using “comely”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-M-E-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkʌmli/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.