distressingly
"distressingly" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“distressingly” is an uncommon English word, ranked #96,947 in English word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #96,947
- frequency rank, English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - In a distressing manner; so as to cause distress.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | distressingly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| Letters | 13 |
| Frequency rank | #96,947 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “distressingly” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for distressingly is 13 letters long, classified as an adverb. Corpus data places it at rank #96,947 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "In a distressing manner; so as to cause distress.".
Zero misspellings are on record for distressingly in our index -- a straightforward spelling with little room for common typos. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From distressing + -ly. The correct English form is distressingly, spelled D-I-S-T-R-E-S-S-I-N-G-L-Y.
Definition
- 1In a distressing manner; so as to cause distress.
Etymology
From distressing + -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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Using “distressingly”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-I-S-T-R-E-S-S-I-N-G-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.