farlie
"farlie" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“farlie” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An unusual or unexpected thing; a wonder.
Corpus desk
Index EN-farlie · farlie · English
farlie · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "F" 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 | farlie |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “farlie” in English
Rare enough to double-check
farlie is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An unusual or unexpected thing; a wonder.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for farlie, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. 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 Middle English farli, ferly, ferlich, feorlich (“a wonderful thing, a marvel, a wonder”), from Middle English farli, ferly, verlich, ferlik, ferlic, feorlic (“terrible, marvellous, wonderful”), from Old English fǣrlīċ (“sudden, unexpected, quick, horri… The correct English form is farlie, spelled F-A-R-L-I-E.
Definition
- 1An unusual or unexpected thing; a wonder.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how farlie appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
(Whilst thus himselfe to please, the mightie Mountaine tells Such farlies of his Cluyd, and of his wondrous Wells)
I saw, in passing, many a farlie and fine things, such as St Paul's and the Tower
Etymology
From Middle English farli, ferly, ferlich, feorlich (“a wonderful thing, a marvel, a wonder”), from Middle English farli, ferly, verlich, ferlik, ferlic, feorlic (“terrible, marvellous, wonderful”), from Old English fǣrlīċ (“sudden, unexpected, quick, horrible”), equivalent to fear + -ly. Cognate with Scots ferlie (“farlie”), Old Norse ferlíki, ferlíkan (“a monster, abnormality, monstrosity”), Old Norse ferligr (“monstrous”).
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.