damnedest

adj

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

The verdict

“damnedest” is uncommon English (frequency #73,105 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#73,105
frequency rank, English
3,470
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - superlative form of damned: most damned; surprising, remarkable, amazing.

Corpus desk

Index EN-damnedest · damnedest · English

damnedest · rank #73,105 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #73,105
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,470
  • PHOTO-FINISH Daejeon

Nearest frequency peer: Daejeon (-1 rank slots)

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.

Long-tail ranks near “damnedest”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “damnedest” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for damnedest
PropertyValue
Headworddamnedest
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters9
Frequency rank#73,105
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “damnedest” in English

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).damnedestfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “Daejeon” (#73,104), “Dampier” (#73,106), “cytosine” (#73,101). Among 3,470 “D” headwords, “damnedest” is #73,105. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

damnedest is uncommon English at frequency #73,105 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "superlative form of damned: most damned; surprising, remarkable, amazing.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for damnedest, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. 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 damned + -est. The correct English form is damnedest, spelled D-A-M-N-E-D-E-S-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    superlative form of damned: most damned; surprising, remarkable, amazing.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. "And the damnedest thing happened. I was dreaming, but in my dream I was dreaming. It was the damnedest thing, really."

Etymology

From damned + -est.

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

How do you spell "damnedest"?
"damnedest" is spelled D-A-M-N-E-D-E-S-T.
What does "damnedest" mean?
As an adjective, "damnedest" means: superlative form of damned: most damned; surprising, remarkable, amazing.
What is the origin of the word "damnedest"?
From damned + -est. 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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "damnedest", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list