courteously
"courteously" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“courteously” is uncommon English (frequency #81,241 among 43,570 “C” headwords), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #81,241
- frequency rank, English
- 43,570
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - In a courteous manner; with obliging civility or condescension; politely.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | courteously |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #81,241 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “courteously” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
courteously is uncommon English at frequency #81,241 among 43,570 “C” headwords, classed as anadverb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "In a courteous manner; with obliging civility or condescension; politely.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for courteously, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English curteisly, curteisliche; equivalent to courteous + -ly. The correct English form is courteously, spelled C-O-U-R-T-E-O-U-S-L-Y.
Definition
- 1In a courteous manner; with obliging civility or condescension; politely.
Etymology
From Middle English curteisly, curteisliche; equivalent to courteous + -ly.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “courteously”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-U-R-T-E-O-U-S-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.