forgetful
/fərˈɡɛtfəl/adjective
forgetful is spelled F-O-R-G-E-T-F-U-L: 9 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,063rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, forgetful means “Unable to remember things well; liable to forget” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in forgetful?
| Letters | 9: F-O-R-G-E-T-F-U-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 34,063rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is forgetful?
Forgetful appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,063rd 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 forgetful?
- /fərˈɡɛtfəl/
Forgetful has 3 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-forgetful.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of forgetful
- more forgetful comparative
- most forgetful superlative
- forgetfull
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does forgetful mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Unable to remember things well; liable to forget.
- 2
Dropping some of the input's structure or properties before producing an output.
a forgetful mapping; a forgetful functor
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forgetful in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense liable to forget:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | oublieux |
| German | vergesslich |
| Portuguese | esquecido, esquecidiço, esquecediço |
| Spanish | olvidadizo, desmemoriado, olvidadero (disused) |
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 forgetful come from?
From Middle English *forgetful, *forȝetful (suggested by derivative forgetfulnesse, forȝetfulnesse (“forgetfulness”)), equivalent to forget + -ful.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).