dishevelled
/dɪˈʃɛvəld/
"dishevelled" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dishevelled” is uncommon English (frequency #71,454 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #71,454
- frequency rank, English
- 3,470
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of a person, with the hair uncombed.
Corpus desk
Index EN-dishevelled · dishevelled · English
dishevelled · rank #71,454 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #71,454
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,470
- PHOTO-FINISH dinning
Nearest frequency peer: dinning (-2 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 “dishevelled”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- didgeridoo
didgeridoo
28,554 corpus weight
- dinning
dinning
28,549 corpus weight
- dishevelled
dishevelled
28,547 corpus weight
- ditzy
ditzy
28,544 corpus weight
- Diu
Diu
28,543 corpus weight
- Dordogne
Dordogne
28,539 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “dishevelled” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dishevelled |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /dɪˈʃɛvəld/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #71,454 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “dishevelled” in English
Rare enough to double-check
dishevelled is uncommon English at frequency #71,454 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /dɪˈʃɛvəld/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for dishevelled in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From earlier dishevely, from Old French deschevelé (modern French déchevelé and échevelé), from des- (“dis-”), + chevel (“hair”) (modern French cheveu). See there for more details. The correct English form is dishevelled, spelled D-I-S-H-E-V-E-L-L-E-D.
Definition
- 1Of a person, with the hair uncombed.
- 2Disorderly or untidy in appearance.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how dishevelled appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The men resided in a huge bunk house, which consisted of one room only, with a shack utside where the cooking was done. In the large room were a dozen bunks ; half of them in a very dishevelled state, […]
“Wild-eyed and disheveled, King Hrethel roamed every night through his throne room, which was empty and still.”
Etymology
From earlier dishevely, from Old French deschevelé (modern French déchevelé and échevelé), from des- (“dis-”), + chevel (“hair”) (modern French cheveu). See there for more details.
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); 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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "dishevelled", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).