dismally
/ˈdɪz.mə.li/
"dismally" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dismally” is uncommon English (frequency #84,176 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #84,176
- frequency rank, English
- 3,470
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - In a dismal manner.
Corpus desk
Index EN-dismally · dismally · English
dismally · rank #84,176 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #84,176
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,470
- PHOTO-FINISH diverticulitis
Nearest frequency peer: diverticulitis (+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 “dismally”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Dimond
Dimond
15,829 corpus weight
- disequilibr…
disequilibrium
15,828 corpus weight
- disgraceful…
disgracefully
15,827 corpus weight
- dismally
dismally
15,825 corpus weight
- diverticuli…
diverticulitis
15,824 corpus weight
- Donegan
Donegan
15,819 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “dismally” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dismally |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | /ˈdɪz.mə.li/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #84,176 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “dismally” in English
Rare enough to double-check
dismally is uncommon English at frequency #84,176 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as anadverb, transcribed /ˈdɪz.mə.li/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "In a dismal manner.".
Zero misspellings are on record for dismally in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From dismal + -ly. The correct English form is dismally, spelled D-I-S-M-A-L-L-Y.
Definition
- 1In a dismal manner.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how dismally appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The ribs of the few horses showed dismally.
Outside an owl was hooting most dismally in the darkness.
Etymology
From dismal + -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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "dismally", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).