covetousness
/ˈkʌvətəsnəs/
"covetousness" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“covetousness” is an uncommon English word, ranked #92,493 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #92,493
- frequency rank, English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Immoderate desire for the possession of something, especially for wealth.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | covetousness |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkʌvətəsnəs/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #92,493 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “covetousness” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for covetousness is 12 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkʌvətəsnəs/. Corpus data places it at rank #92,493 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Immoderate desire for the possession of something, especially for wealth.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for covetousness, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English covatusnes, covetousnes, coveytousnesse; equivalent to covetous + -ness. The correct English form is covetousness, spelled C-O-V-E-T-O-U-S-N-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1Immoderate desire for the possession of something, especially for wealth.
Etymology
From Middle English covatusnes, covetousnes, coveytousnesse; equivalent to covetous + -ness.
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 “covetousness”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-V-E-T-O-U-S-N-E-S-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkʌvətəsnəs/ (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.