doleful
/ˈdoʊlfəl/
"doleful" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“doleful” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as an adjective - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Filled with grief, mournful, bringing feelings of sadness.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | doleful |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈdoʊlfəl/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “doleful” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for doleful is 7 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈdoʊlfəl/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Filled with grief, mournful, bringing feelings of sadness.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for doleful, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English doleful, doolful, deolful, equivalent to dole + -ful. The correct English form is doleful, spelled D-O-L-E-F-U-L.
Definition
- 1Filled with grief, mournful, bringing feelings of sadness.
Etymology
From Middle English doleful, doolful, deolful, equivalent to dole + -ful.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “doleful”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-O-L-E-F-U-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈdoʊlfəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.