down in the mouth

adj

"down-in-the-mouth" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“down in the mouth” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
17
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Sad or discouraged, especially as indicated by one's facial appearance.

Corpus desk

Index EN-down-in-the-mouth · down in the mouth · English

down in the mouth · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 17 letters
  • VOW-5 5 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.

Key facts for down in the mouth
PropertyValue
Headworddown in the mouth
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters17
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “down in the mouth” in English

down in the mouthfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

down in the mouth is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Sad or discouraged, especially as indicated by one's facial appearance.".

down in the mouth doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is down in the mouth, spelled D-O-W-N- -I-N- -T-H-E- -M-O-U-T-H.

Definition

  1. 1
    Sad or discouraged, especially as indicated by one's facial appearance.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how down in the mouth appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. "Is the old 'un here?" asked the robber. "Yes," replied the voice, "and precious down in the mouth he has been."
  2. Said Chrysler's tough, dynamic boss, K. T. Keller: "Don't get down in the mouth about business in this country. There is going to be a lot of money spent here."

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

How do you spell "down in the mouth"?
"down in the mouth" is spelled D-O-W-N- -I-N- -T-H-E- -M-O-U-T-H.
What does "down in the mouth" mean?
As an adjective, "down in the mouth" means: Sad or discouraged, especially as indicated by one's facial appearance.
What language does "down in the mouth" come from?
"down in the mouth" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list