devil-may-care
"devil-may-care" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“devil-may-care” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Carefree, reckless, irresponsible.
Corpus desk
Index EN-devil-may-care · devil-may-care · English
devil-may-care · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-6 6 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | devil-may-care |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “devil-may-care” in English
Rare enough to double-check
devil-may-care is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Carefree, reckless, irresponsible.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for devil-may-care, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From attributive use of a shortened idiom of the original oath or expression: The devil may care, but I do not. The correct English form is devil-may-care, spelled D-E-V-I-L---M-A-Y---C-A-R-E.
Definition
- 1Carefree, reckless, irresponsible.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how devil-may-care appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
This is the sort of witchery, not easily defined—but, by its votaries, pretty sensibly felt, in hunting the fox. The light-hearted, high-spirited stripling, when cigaring it careless to cover, with a kind of a knowing demi-devil-may-care twist of his beaver, receives in his transit a benison from every real friend of the chase he may chance to pass; and t…
Not that this would have worried him much, anyway—he was a mighty free and easy, roving, devil-may-care sort of person.
Etymology
From attributive use of a shortened idiom of the original oath or expression: The devil may care, but I do not.
This word in other languages
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.