hearsome
"hearsome" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hearsome” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ready to hear; obedient; compliant; dutiful; devout.
Corpus desk
Index EN-hearsome · hearsome · English
hearsome · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 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 | hearsome |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “hearsome” in English
Rare enough to double-check
hearsome is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Ready to hear; obedient; compliant; dutiful; devout.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for hearsome, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English hersum, ihersum, from Old English hīersum, ġehīersum (“obedient”), from Proto-West Germanic *hauʀisam, *gahauʀisam, equivalent to hear + -some. Cognate with West Frisian hearsum (“obedient”), Dutch gehoorzaam (“obedient, dutiful, law-abi… The correct English form is hearsome, spelled H-E-A-R-S-O-M-E.
Definition
- 1Ready to hear; obedient; compliant; dutiful; devout.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how hearsome appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
"[…] Thou dost like a hearsome wife, thou dost ever say."
In that he mis-bade (ruled) his monks in many things and the monks meant it lovingly to him and bade him that he should hold (treat) them rightly and love them and they would be faithful to him and hearsome (obedient).
Etymology
From Middle English hersum, ihersum, from Old English hīersum, ġehīersum (“obedient”), from Proto-West Germanic *hauʀisam, *gahauʀisam, equivalent to hear + -some. Cognate with West Frisian hearsum (“obedient”), Dutch gehoorzaam (“obedient, dutiful, law-abiding”), Low German horzaam, hursam (“obedient”), German gehorsam (“obedient, submissive, subdued”), Swedish hörsam (“obedient”).
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.