gruelling
/ˈɡɹʊə.lɪŋ/
"gruelling" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“gruelling” is uncommon English (frequency #52,357 among 2,313 “G” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #52,357
- frequency rank, English
- 2,313
- “G” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Very difficult or taxing; exhausting; backbreaking.
Corpus desk
Index EN-gruelling · gruelling · English
gruelling · rank #52,357 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #52,357
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,313
- PHOTO-FINISH Grogan
Nearest frequency peer: Grogan (-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 “gruelling”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- governorate
governorate
47,647 corpus weight
- grater
grater
47,646 corpus weight
- Grogan
Grogan
47,645 corpus weight
- gruelling
gruelling
47,644 corpus weight
- guises
guises
47,643 corpus weight
- gushed
gushed
47,642 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “gruelling” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gruelling |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈɡɹʊə.lɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #52,357 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “gruelling” in English
Rare enough to double-check
gruelling is uncommon English at frequency #52,357 among 2,313 “G” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈɡɹʊə.lɪŋ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Very difficult or taxing; exhausting; backbreaking.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for gruelling, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. 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.
Etymologically, the entry records: From present participle of gruel (“to exhaust, punish”), from gruel (noun). The correct English form is gruelling, spelled G-R-U-E-L-L-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1Very difficult or taxing; exhausting; backbreaking.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how gruelling appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Diggle Station lies high up in the Pennine Chain, subject to extreme low temperatures. With this and heavy snowfall in the winter months, Diggle bids fair to compete with the Scottish lines under similar weather conditions, and the provision of unfrozen water in the higher ambient temperature of the tunnel must be a boon to harassed engine drivers whose t…
Etymology
From present participle of gruel (“to exhaust, punish”), from gruel (noun).
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "gruelling", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).