feel around
"feel-around" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“feel around” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To grope; to explore an area with one's hands, usually in search of something.
Corpus desk
Index EN-feel-around · feel around · English
feel around · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-5 5 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 | feel around |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “feel around” in English
Rare enough to double-check
feel around is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for feel around, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No borrowing history is documented 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 feel around, spelled F-E-E-L- -A-R-O-U-N-D.
Definition
- 1To grope; to explore an area with one's hands, usually in search of something.
- 2To gather information sneakily; to seek out information without revealing that one is actively searching for it.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how feel around appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I felt around in my pockes for my keyring in vain.
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.