dolesome
/ˈdoʊlsəm/
"dolesome" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dolesome” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Characterised or marked by sorrow and grief; doleful; dismal; gloomy.
Corpus desk
Index EN-dolesome · dolesome · English
dolesome · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 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 | dolesome |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈdoʊlsəm/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “dolesome” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
dolesome is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈdoʊlsəm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Characterised or marked by sorrow and grief; doleful; dismal; gloomy.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for dolesome in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From dole (“sorrow, grief”) + -some. The correct English form is dolesome, spelled D-O-L-E-S-O-M-E.
Definition
- 1Characterised or marked by sorrow and grief; doleful; dismal; gloomy.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how dolesome appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The grandmother [...] raised her under the dolesome eyes of a multicoloured Virgin Mary.
Etymology
From dole (“sorrow, grief”) + -some.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
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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.