hard-boiled
"hard-boiled" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hard-boiled” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Cooked to a solid consistency. (of a boiled egg)
Corpus desk
Index EN-hard-boiled · hard-boiled · English
hard-boiled · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "H" 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 | hard-boiled |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hard-boiled” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
hard-boiled is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for hard-boiled in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is hard-boiled, spelled H-A-R-D---B-O-I-L-E-D.
Definition
- 1Cooked to a solid consistency. (of a boiled egg)
- 2Callous and unsentimental. (of a person, especially a detective)
- 3Written in a laconic, dispassionate, often ironic style for a realistic, unsentimental effect.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how hard-boiled appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He told me afterward that he tried to find his folks and square himself—and maybe it was the truth—but some of the hard-boiled townspeople found him, instead, and he had a running fight all the way to the depot.
'Some big, hard-boiled egg meets up with a pretty face, and bingo! He cracks up and melts.'
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.