green about the gills
"green-about-the-gills" is a 18-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“green about the gills” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 21
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ill or unwell, especially as indicated by one's appearance.
Corpus desk
Index EN-green-about-the-gills · green about the gills · English
green about the gills · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 21 letters
- VOW-7 7 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "G" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | green about the gills |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 21 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “green about the gills” in English
Rare enough to double-check
green about the gills is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Ill or unwell, especially as indicated by one's appearance.".
green about the gills doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is green about the gills, spelled G-R-E-E-N- -A-B-O-U-T- -T-H-E- -G-I-L-L-S.
Definition
- 1Ill or unwell, especially as indicated by one's appearance.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how green about the gills appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
"You're looking rather green about the gills, old chap." "I feel a little chippy to-day." "That's the worst of these cheap champagnes."
Although he boarded his ship with wristbands and pills intended to ward off any possible queasiness, he did not turn green about the gills.
Synonyms
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.