cuckoldry

noun

"cuckoldry" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
9
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An act of adultery committed by a married woman against her husband.

Corpus desk

Index EN-cuckoldry · cuckoldry · English

cuckoldry · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 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 cuckoldry
PropertyValue
Headwordcuckoldry
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “cuckoldry” in English

cuckoldrysits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

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

Rare enough to double-check

cuckoldry is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for cuckoldry in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From cuckold + -ry. The correct English form is cuckoldry, spelled C-U-C-K-O-L-D-R-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    An act of adultery committed by a married woman against her husband.
  2. 2
    The state of being a cuckold.
  3. 3
    Among certain male fish, the practice of interrupting a mating pair to release sperm in an attempt to fertilize the female.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how cuckoldry appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. How many such-like cuckoldries are there in histories, procured by the Gods against seely mortall men?
  2. By the end of 2017, it was clear that Homo politicus, like his allies in Hollywood and the media, tends not towards cuckoldry but a 21st-century equivalent of the droit du seigneur.

Etymology

From cuckold + -ry.

Synonyms

Antonyms

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 "cuckoldry"?
"cuckoldry" is spelled C-U-C-K-O-L-D-R-Y.
What does "cuckoldry" mean?
As a noun, "cuckoldry" means: An act of adultery committed by a married woman against her husband.
What is the origin of the word "cuckoldry"?
From cuckold + -ry. 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