grievously
"grievously" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“grievously” is uncommon English (frequency #63,660 among 2,313 “G” headwords), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #63,660
- frequency rank, English
- 2,313
- “G” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - In a grievous manner, severely.
Corpus desk
Index EN-grievously · grievously · English
grievously · rank #63,660 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #63,660
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,313
- PHOTO-FINISH grice
Nearest frequency peer: grice (-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 “grievously”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- greasing
greasing
36,344 corpus weight
- greenstone
greenstone
36,343 corpus weight
- grice
grice
36,342 corpus weight
- grievously
grievously
36,341 corpus weight
- gulps
gulps
36,339 corpus weight
- guna
guna
36,338 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “grievously” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | grievously |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #63,660 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “grievously” in English
Rare enough to double-check
grievously is uncommon English at frequency #63,660 among 2,313 “G” headwords, classed as anadverb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "In a grievous manner, severely.".
grievously has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English grevously; equivalent to grievous + -ly. The correct English form is grievously, spelled G-R-I-E-V-O-U-S-L-Y.
Definition
- 1In a grievous manner, severely.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how grievously appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Thoſe Chriſtian Captiues, which you keepe as ſlaues, […] when they chance to reſt or breath a ſpace, Are puniſht with Baſtones so grieuouſly, That they lie panting on the Gallies ſide.
That's why this failure of the super committee represents a reckless, irresponsible gamble by our "leaders" in Washington. It's difficult to remember a Congress that has put the nation so much at risk in the service of ideology and to hold onto office. Partisans on both sides are grievously failing the country.
Etymology
From Middle English grevously; equivalent to grievous + -ly.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "grievously", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).