hayfever

noun

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

The verdict

“hayfever” is uncommon English (frequency #86,346 among 2,646 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#86,346
frequency rank, English
2,646
“H” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Alternative spelling of hay fever.

Corpus desk

Index EN-hayfever · hayfever · English

hayfever · rank #86,346 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #86,346
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,646
  • PHOTO-FINISH Hawken

Nearest frequency peer: Hawken (-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 “hayfever”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “hayfever” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for hayfever
PropertyValue
Headwordhayfever
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters8
Frequency rank#86,346
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “hayfever” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).hayfeverfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “Hawken” (#86,345), “Hauck” (#86,344), “hatted” (#86,343). Among 2,646 “H” headwords, “hayfever” is #86,346. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

hayfever is uncommon English at frequency #86,346 among 2,646 “H” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Alternative spelling of hay fever.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for hayfever, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From hay + fever. The correct English form is hayfever, spelled H-A-Y-F-E-V-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Alternative spelling of hay fever.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how hayfever appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. RAGWEED ( Jeffogia Fingerolia) : The hayfever king, ragweed, brings tears to the eyes of grown men.

Etymology

From hay + fever.

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

How do you spell "hayfever"?
"hayfever" is spelled H-A-Y-F-E-V-E-R.
What does "hayfever" mean?
As a noun, "hayfever" means: Alternative spelling of hay fever.
What is the origin of the word "hayfever"?
From hay + fever. 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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "hayfever", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list