feisty
/ˈfaɪsti/adjective
feisty is spelled F-E-I-S-T-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is fiesty: about 930 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 3 in 10 of all searches for the word. Feisty is an adjective meaning “Tenacious, energetic, spunky”.
How many letters and syllables are in feisty?
| Letters | 6: F-E-I-S-T-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.2 times per million words; the 26,420th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, fiesty, about 930 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell feisty?
Feisty is spelled F-E-I-S-T-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 3 in 10 of the searches for feisty in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is feisty?
Feisty appears 1.2 times per million words in written English, the 26,420th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce feisty?
- /ˈfaɪsti/
Feisty has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-feisty.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of feisty
- feistier comparative
- more feisty comparative
- feistiest superlative
- most feisty superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does feisty mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Tenacious, energetic, spunky.
spirited and feisty
- 2
Belligerent; prepared to stand and fight, especially in spite of relatively small stature or some other disadvantage.
small but feisty
- 3
Easily offended and ready to bicker.
a feisty attitude
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Feisty in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | tenace , agressif |
| German | zäh, hartnäckig, lebhaft, temperamentvoll, munter, quirlig |
| Portuguese | tenaz, obstinado, perseverante , invocado, brigão, briguento |
| Spanish | tenaz , agresivo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does feisty come from?
First use appears c. 1875 in the US. From feist (“a small, aggressive dog”) + -y; the term feist (now rare) itself originally meant “stink”, and earlier “fart”, from Middle English, from Old English, from Proto-Germanic, presumably from Proto-Indo-European – see feist for details.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).