frightfully
/ˈfɹaɪtfəli/
"frightfully" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“frightfully” is uncommon English (frequency #62,154 among 2,507 “F” headwords), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #62,154
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - In a frightful manner.
Corpus desk
Index EN-frightfully · frightfully · English
frightfully · rank #62,154 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #62,154
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH fruitcake
Nearest frequency peer: fruitcake (+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 “frightfully”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- freckle
freckle
37,850 corpus weight
- freckled
freckled
37,849 corpus weight
- frightfully
frightfully
37,847 corpus weight
- fruitcake
fruitcake
37,846 corpus weight
- Funke
Funke
37,843 corpus weight
- furore
furore
37,842 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “frightfully” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | frightfully |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | /ˈfɹaɪtfəli/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #62,154 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “frightfully” in English
Rare enough to double-check
frightfully is uncommon English at frequency #62,154 among 2,507 “F” headwords, classed as anadverb, transcribed /ˈfɹaɪtfəli/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for frightfully in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From frightful + -ly. The correct English form is frightfully, spelled F-R-I-G-H-T-F-U-L-L-Y.
Definition
- 1In a frightful manner.
- 2Very, extremely.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how frightfully appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
It all went frightfully quickly.
"Really!" he said, collapsing into lassitude. "It's too frightfully hot for singing."
Etymology
From frightful + -ly.
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 "frightfully", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).