healthful
adjective
healthful is spelled H-E-A-L-T-H-F-U-L: 9 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,998th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, healthful means “Beneficial to bodily health” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in healthful?
| Letters | 9: H-E-A-L-T-H-F-U-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 36,998th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is healthful?
Healthful appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,998th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce healthful?
- US
Healthful has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-healthful.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of healthful
- healthfuller comparative
- more healthful comparative
- healthfullest superlative
- most healthful superlative
- healthfull
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does healthful mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Beneficial to bodily health.
- 2
Conducive to moral or spiritual prosperity; salutary.
- 3
archaicSynonym of healthy (“evincing health”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Healthful in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense beneficial to health:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does healthful come from?
From Middle English helthful, helþful, helþeful, equivalent to health + -ful.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).