fitfully
"fitfully" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fitfully” is uncommon English (frequency #97,029 among 2,507 “F” headwords), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #97,029
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - In a fitful manner; irregularly or unsteadily.
Corpus desk
Index EN-fitfully · fitfully · English
fitfully · rank #97,029 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #97,029
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH fishkill
Nearest frequency peer: fishkill (-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 “fitfully”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- filleted
filleted
2,976 corpus weight
- fishkill
fishkill
2,973 corpus weight
- fitfully
fitfully
2,972 corpus weight
- Fixit
Fixit
2,971 corpus weight
- Flannigan
Flannigan
2,970 corpus weight
- fledge
fledge
2,968 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “fitfully” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fitfully |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #97,029 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “fitfully” in English
Rare enough to double-check
fitfully is uncommon English at frequency #97,029 among 2,507 “F” headwords, classed as anadverb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "In a fitful manner; irregularly or unsteadily.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for fitfully, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From fitful + -ly. The correct English form is fitfully, spelled F-I-T-F-U-L-L-Y.
Definition
- 1In a fitful manner; irregularly or unsteadily.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how fitfully appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He slept fitfully, plagued by bad dreams and a persistent cough.
The cabin lamp—taking long swings this way and that— was burning fitfully, and casting fitful shadows upon the old man’s bolted door […]
Etymology
From fitful + -ly.
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 "fitfully", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).