gammy
/ˈɡæmi/
"gammy" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“gammy” is uncommon English (frequency #80,474 among 2,313 “G” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #80,474
- frequency rank, English
- 2,313
- “G” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Injured, or not functioning properly (with respect to legs).
Corpus desk
Index EN-gammy · gammy · English
gammy · rank #80,474 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #80,474
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,313
- PHOTO-FINISH gak
Nearest frequency peer: gak (-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 “gammy”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- furosemide
furosemide
19,531 corpus weight
- furst
furst
19,530 corpus weight
- gabled
gabled
19,529 corpus weight
- gak
gak
19,528 corpus weight
- gammy
gammy
19,527 corpus weight
- gaster
gaster
19,523 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “gammy” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gammy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈɡæmi/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #80,474 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “gammy” in English
Rare enough to double-check
gammy is uncommon English at frequency #80,474 among 2,313 “G” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈɡæmi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for gammy in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Origin obscure and uncertain. Possibly from the English dialectal (North Midlands) adjective game (“lame”), Welsh cam (“crooked”), or from Irish cam (“bent”), by way of Shelta. Compare also Old Occitan gambi (“lame, limping”), related to Old Occitan gamba (… The correct English form is gammy, spelled G-A-M-M-Y.
Definition
- 1Injured, or not functioning properly (with respect to legs).
- 2Fake; counterfeit.
- 3Bad; unfavourable.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how gammy appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I have got a gammy leg, and can't walk far.
"With that gammy leg I wouldn't risk a bet against the chance of another accident on those stairs."
Etymology
Origin obscure and uncertain. Possibly from the English dialectal (North Midlands) adjective game (“lame”), Welsh cam (“crooked”), or from Irish cam (“bent”), by way of Shelta. Compare also Old Occitan gambi (“lame, limping”), related to Old Occitan gamba (“leg”) (see also French jambe (“leg”), English gam (“leg”)).
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 "gammy", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).