cost-free
"cost-free" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cost-free” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as an adjective - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of software, content, or materials, without any monetary payment or licensing fees.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cost-free |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cost-free” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cost-free is 9 letters long, classified as an adjective. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Of software, content, or materials, without any monetary payment or licensing fees.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for cost-free, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From cost + -free. The correct English form is cost-free, spelled C-O-S-T---F-R-E-E.
Definition
- 1Of software, content, or materials, without any monetary payment or licensing fees.
Etymology
From cost + -free.
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
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Using “cost-free”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-S-T---F-R-E-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.