earnestness
/ˈɝnɪstnəs/
"earnestness" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“earnestness” is uncommon English (frequency #60,043 among 2,246 “E” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #60,043
- frequency rank, English
- 2,246
- “E” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The quality of being earnest; sincerity; seriousness.
Corpus desk
Index EN-earnestness · earnestness · English
earnestness · rank #60,043 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #60,043
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,246
- PHOTO-FINISH ducal
Nearest frequency peer: ducal (-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 “earnestness”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- draping
draping
39,962 corpus weight
- duan
duan
39,960 corpus weight
- ducal
ducal
39,959 corpus weight
- earnestness
earnestness
39,958 corpus weight
- ebbs
ebbs
39,957 corpus weight
- Ecclestone
Ecclestone
39,955 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “earnestness” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | earnestness |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɝnɪstnəs/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #60,043 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “earnestness” in English
Rare enough to double-check
earnestness is uncommon English at frequency #60,043 among 2,246 “E” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈɝnɪstnəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The quality of being earnest; sincerity; seriousness.".
earnestness has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From earnest + -ness. The correct English form is earnestness, spelled E-A-R-N-E-S-T-N-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1The quality of being earnest; sincerity; seriousness.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how earnestness appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Gameshttp://www.avclub.com/articles/the-hunger-games,71293/ She’s joined, on the boys’ side, by Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), a baker’s son whose earnestness masks a gift for strategy that Katniss lacks.
Etymology
From earnest + -ness.
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
How do you spell "earnestness"?
What does "earnestness" mean?
How do you pronounce "earnestness"?
What is the origin of the word "earnestness"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "earnestness", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).