flightless
"flightless" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“flightless” is uncommon English (frequency #54,780 among 2,507 “F” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,780
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Unable to fly.
Corpus desk
Index EN-flightless · flightless · English
flightless · rank #54,780 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #54,780
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH flexibly
Nearest frequency peer: flexibly (-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 “flightless”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- FIBA
FIBA
45,225 corpus weight
- flexibly
flexibly
45,222 corpus weight
- flightless
flightless
45,221 corpus weight
- fook
fook
45,220 corpus weight
- forethought
forethought
45,219 corpus weight
- formalize
formalize
45,218 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “flightless” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | flightless |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #54,780 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “flightless” in English
Rare enough to double-check
flightless is uncommon English at frequency #54,780 among 2,507 “F” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for flightless in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From flight + -less. The correct English form is flightless, spelled F-L-I-G-H-T-L-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1Unable to fly.
- 2Unable to fly.
- 3Unable to fly.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how flightless appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Near-synonyms: apterous, wingless
The indigenous fauna of Australia and New Zealand featured an especially interesting array of flightless birds.
Etymology
From flight + -less.
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 "flightless", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).