hilarious
/hɪˈlɛə.ɹi.əs/
"hilarious" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hilarious” has 12 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #4,531. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #4,531
- frequency rank, English
- 2,646
- “H” headwords
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Very funny; causing great merriment and laughter.
Corpus desk
Index EN-hilarious · hilarious · English
hilarious · rank #4,531 · 12 variants · 1 confusable
- FREQ-COMMON #4,531
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
- VAR-MID 12 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,646
- PHOTO-FINISH gathered
Nearest frequency peer: gathered (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “hilarious”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- frequent
frequent
95,473 corpus weight
- gardens
gardens
95,472 corpus weight
- gathered
gathered
95,471 corpus weight
- hilarious
hilarious
95,470 corpus weight
- huh
huh
95,469 corpus weight
- ignored
ignored
95,468 corpus weight
What this shows “hilarious” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hilarious |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /hɪˈlɛə.ɹi.əs/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #4,531 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “hilarious”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 12 spelling variants around hilarious (IPA /hɪˈlɛə.ɹi.əs/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #4,531 among 2,646 “H” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for hilarious, with forms such as "hhilarious", "hialrious", and "hilairous". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "hilariously", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Latin hilaris (“cheerful”) + -ous, from Ancient Greek ἱλαρός (hilarós, “cheerful, merry”). The correct English form is hilarious, spelled H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Very funny; causing great merriment and laughter.
- 2Full of hilarity; merry.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how hilarious appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
a hilarious joke
Do you like Monty Python? I think they're hilarious.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin hilaris (“cheerful”) + -ous, from Ancient Greek ἱλαρός (hilarós, “cheerful, merry”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- hhilarious
- hialrious
- hilairous
- hilariosu
- hilariouss
- hilariuos
- hilaroius
- hilarrious
- hillarious
- hilraious
- hliarious
- ihlarious
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of hilarious - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "hilarious"?
What does "hilarious" mean?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "hilarious", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).