daddy-long-legs

noun

"daddy-long-legs" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
15
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Alternative form of daddy longlegs.

Corpus desk

Index EN-daddy-long-legs · daddy-long-legs · English

daddy-long-legs · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 15 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "D" 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 daddy-long-legs
PropertyValue
Headworddaddy-long-legs
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters15
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “daddy-long-legs” in English

daddy-long-legssits 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

daddy-long-legs is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Alternative form of daddy longlegs.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for daddy-long-legs, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is daddy-long-legs, spelled D-A-D-D-Y---L-O-N-G---L-E-G-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Alternative form of daddy longlegs.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. A daddy-long-legs shot from corner to corner and hit the lamp globe.

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 "daddy-long-legs"?
"daddy-long-legs" is spelled D-A-D-D-Y---L-O-N-G---L-E-G-S.
What does "daddy-long-legs" mean?
As a noun, "daddy-long-legs" means: Alternative form of daddy longlegs.
What language does "daddy-long-legs" come from?
"daddy-long-legs" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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