depressingly

adv

"depressingly" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“depressingly” is uncommon English (frequency #57,335 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#57,335
frequency rank, English
3,470
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - In a depressing manner.

Corpus desk

Index EN-depressingly · depressingly · English

depressingly · rank #57,335 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #57,335
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,470
  • PHOTO-FINISH deplore

Nearest frequency peer: deplore (-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 “depressingly”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for depressingly
PropertyValue
Headworddepressingly
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdverb
Letters12
Frequency rank#57,335
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “depressingly” 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).depressinglyfalls in this rarity band:

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

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Rare peers in the same band: “deplore” (#57,334), “destitution” (#57,336), “Deluca” (#57,332). Among 3,470 “D” headwords, “depressingly” is #57,335. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

depressingly is uncommon English at frequency #57,335 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as anadverb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "In a depressing manner.".

No misspelling variants are generated for depressingly in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From depressing + -ly. The correct English form is depressingly, spelled D-E-P-R-E-S-S-I-N-G-L-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    In a depressing manner.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.

Etymology

From depressing + -ly.

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 "depressingly"?
"depressingly" is spelled D-E-P-R-E-S-S-I-N-G-L-Y.
What does "depressingly" mean?
As an adverb, "depressingly" means: In a depressing manner.
What is the origin of the word "depressingly"?
From depressing + -ly. 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 "depressingly", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list