grown-ass
"grown-ass" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“grown-ass” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - grown-up; adult; often used in reproach of an adult's immaturity, or, conversely, in assertion of maturity.
Corpus desk
Index EN-grown-ass · grown-ass · English
grown-ass · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-2 2 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 | grown-ass |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “grown-ass” in English
Rare enough to double-check
grown-ass is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "grown-up; adult; often used in reproach of an adult's immaturity, or, conversely, in assertion of maturity.".
grown-ass doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From grown + -ass. The correct English form is grown-ass, spelled G-R-O-W-N---A-S-S.
Definition
- 1grown-up; adult; often used in reproach of an adult's immaturity, or, conversely, in assertion of maturity.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how grown-ass appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
They call it a sport, but to me it looks like a bunch of grown-ass men running around like children.
Your mother is a grown-ass woman, and if she doesn't like you living your life for yourself rather than her, she can deal with it.
Etymology
From grown + -ass.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.