gleeful
/ˈɡliːfəl/
"gleeful" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“gleeful” is an uncommon English word, ranked #57,407 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #57,407
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Exuberantly or triumphantly joyful.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gleeful |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈɡliːfəl/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #57,407 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “gleeful” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for gleeful is 7 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɡliːfəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #57,407 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Exuberantly or triumphantly joyful.".
gleeful doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From glee + -ful. The correct English form is gleeful, spelled G-L-E-E-F-U-L.
Definition
- 1Exuberantly or triumphantly joyful.
Etymology
From glee + -ful.
Synonyms
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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Using “gleeful”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-L-E-E-F-U-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɡliːfəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.