despiteful

adj

"despiteful" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Full of despite; expressing malice or contemptuous hate.

Corpus desk

Index EN-despiteful · despiteful · English

despiteful · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 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 despiteful
PropertyValue
Headworddespiteful
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “despiteful” in English

despitefulfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

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

Rare enough to double-check

despiteful is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Full of despite; expressing malice or contemptuous hate.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for despiteful in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From despite + -ful. The correct English form is despiteful, spelled D-E-S-P-I-T-E-F-U-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Full of despite; expressing malice or contemptuous hate.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. The Londoners seeing that they could get no vantage against the duke, who was without their reach, to bewreak their anger they took his arms, which in most despiteful wise they hanged up in the open places of the city in sign of reproach, as for a traitor; […]

Etymology

From despite + -ful.

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 "despiteful"?
"despiteful" is spelled D-E-S-P-I-T-E-F-U-L.
What does "despiteful" mean?
As an adjective, "despiteful" means: Full of despite; expressing malice or contemptuous hate.
What is the origin of the word "despiteful"?
From despite + -ful. 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