girly
/ˈɡɝli/
"girly" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“girly” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #21,526 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #21,526
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Characteristic of a stereotypical girl, very effeminate, gentle; unmasculine.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | girly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈɡɝli/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #21,526 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “girly” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for girly is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɡɝli/. Corpus data places it at rank #21,526 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for girly, with forms such as "ggirly", "gilry", and "girlly". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "grey", "gray", "giro", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From girl + -y (adjectival sufix). The correct English form is girly, spelled G-I-R-L-Y.
Definition
- 1Characteristic of a stereotypical girl, very effeminate, gentle; unmasculine.
- 2Of, or pertaining to, a young, attractive woman; especially one who is scantily clad.
- 3Weak; wussy.
Etymology
From girl + -y (adjectival sufix).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ggirly,gilry,girlly,girlyy,girrly,giryl,grily,igrly
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of girly - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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Using “girly”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-I-R-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɡɝli/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “grey” - see the side-by-side comparison. girly vs grey
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.