ever so
/ˈɛvə(ɹ)ˌsoʊ/
"ever-so" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ever so” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see ever, so.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ever-so · ever so · English
ever so · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "E" 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 | ever so |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | /ˈɛvə(ɹ)ˌsoʊ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “ever so” in English
Rare enough to double-check
ever so is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed /ˈɛvə(ɹ)ˌsoʊ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
ever so has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is ever so, spelled E-V-E-R- -S-O.
Definition
- 1Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see ever, so.
- 2Very, extremely
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ever so appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Were ironic quotation marks ever so deserved?
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
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.