# gravelly

> English word · Adjective · IPA /ˈɡɹævəli/ · frequency rank #49,366

## Definitions
1. Full of, covered with, or similar to gravel or pebbles.
2. Of a voice: unpleasantly harsh or rasping.
3. Caused by or involving gravel (“kidney stones”).
4. Full of or covered with sand; sandy.

## Etymology
From Middle English gravelli (“covered with gravel or sand; (pathology) containing sand-like matter”), from gravel (“sand; grain of stand; gravel, pebbles; (pathology) sand-like matter in the urine, calculus”) + -lī (suffix forming adjectives). Gravel is derived from Old French gravel, gravele, gravelle (“gravel; (pathology) calculus”) (modern French gravelle (“(pathology) calculus”)), from grave (“coarse sand, gravel; seashore”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁w- (“to grind”); modern French grève (“riverbank; shore, strand”)) + -ele (diminutive suffix). The English word is analysable as gravel + -y (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘having the quality of’).

## Easily confused with
- **gravely** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gravelly-vs-gravely)
- **gravel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gravel-vs-gravelly)

## Common misspellings (10)
`garvelly`, `ggravelly`, `graevlly`, `gravellyy`, `gravelyl`, `gravlely`, `gravvelly`, `grravelly`, `grvaelly`, `rgavelly`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/gravelly