heir-at-law
"heir-at-law" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“heir-at-law” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. 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) - A person legally entitled to inherit the property of someone who dies intestate.
Corpus desk
Index EN-heir-at-law · heir-at-law · English
heir-at-law · 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 | heir-at-law |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “heir-at-law” in English
Rare enough to double-check
heir-at-law is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A person legally entitled to inherit the property of someone who dies intestate.".
heir-at-law has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is heir-at-law, spelled H-E-I-R---A-T---L-A-W.
Definition
- 1A person legally entitled to inherit the property of someone who dies intestate.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how heir-at-law appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
'And to whom,' said Lady Knollys, with an effort, 'will the property belong, in case—in case my little cousin here should die before she comes of age?' 'Eh? Well—wouldn't it go to the heir-at-law and next of kin?' said Doctor Bryerly, turning to Abel Grimston. 'Ay—to be sure,' said the attorney, thoughtfully. 'And who is that?' pursued my cousin. 'Well, h…
Synonyms
Antonyms
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.