hard-luck

adj

"hard-luck" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“hard-luck” 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) - Marked by or experiencing difficulty, as if by bad luck.

Corpus desk

Index EN-hard-luck · hard-luck · English

hard-luck · 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 "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.

Key facts for hard-luck
PropertyValue
Headwordhard-luck
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters9
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “hard-luck” in English

hard-luckfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

hard-luck is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Marked by or experiencing difficulty, as if by bad luck.".

No misspelling variants are generated for hard-luck in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From hard + luck. The correct English form is hard-luck, spelled H-A-R-D---L-U-C-K.

Definition

  1. 1
    Marked by or experiencing difficulty, as if by bad luck.

Etymology

From hard + luck.

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

How do you spell "hard-luck"?
"hard-luck" is spelled H-A-R-D---L-U-C-K.
What does "hard-luck" mean?
As an adjective, "hard-luck" means: Marked by or experiencing difficulty, as if by bad luck.
What is the origin of the word "hard-luck"?
From hard + luck. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list