feckless
/ˈfɛkləs/
"feckless" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“feckless” is uncommon English (frequency #54,175 among 2,507 “F” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,175
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Lacking purpose.
Corpus desk
Index EN-feckless · feckless · English
feckless · rank #54,175 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #54,175
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH feathering
Nearest frequency peer: feathering (-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 “feckless”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- eze
eze
45,831 corpus weight
- feathering
feathering
45,827 corpus weight
- feckless
feckless
45,826 corpus weight
- Fellowes
Fellowes
45,824 corpus weight
- fetches
fetches
45,822 corpus weight
- FiOS
FiOS
45,821 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “feckless” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | feckless |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈfɛkləs/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #54,175 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “feckless” in English
Rare enough to double-check
feckless is uncommon English at frequency #54,175 among 2,507 “F” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈfɛkləs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for feckless, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Scots feckless, variant of Scots fectless (“ineffectual”) (an aphetic variant of effectless), equivalent to effect + -less. The correct English form is feckless, spelled F-E-C-K-L-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1Lacking purpose.
- 2Without skill, ineffective, incompetent.
- 3Lacking the courage to act in any meaningful way.
- 4Lacking vitality.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how feckless appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
It is the beauty of great games when they are played at their highest level and the extraordinary thing now is that we do not have to trawl back through all the years of your inexorable progress from feckless beach boy to master sportsman.
“Lana, when I want you to talk, I will tell you. And until then, zip it.” “Wha-- what did I do?” “Nothing.” “Yeah, Lana.” “Which is why these feckless idiots lost 200 kilos of cocaine.” “Yeah, Lan-- oh. OK. Technically. But then we stole a plane loaded with, like, twice as much cocaine.” “Is this the part where you tell me to look under my seat?”
Etymology
From Scots feckless, variant of Scots fectless (“ineffectual”) (an aphetic variant of effectless), equivalent to effect + -less.
Synonyms
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); 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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "feckless", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).