humorless

adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"humorless" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“humorless” is uncommon English (frequency #73,279 among 2,646 “H” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#73,279
frequency rank, English
2,646
“H” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Lacking humor or levity; serious; not funny, amusing, amused, or lighthearted.

Corpus desk

Index EN-humorless · humorless · English

humorless · rank #73,279 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #73,279
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,646
  • PHOTO-FINISH hydrodynamics

Nearest frequency peer: hydrodynamics (+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.

Frequency neighbourhood for “humorless”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “humorless” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for humorless
PropertyValue
Headwordhumorless
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters9
Frequency rank#73,279
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “humorless” sits in English frequency

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).humorless lands here:

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

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

humorless is uncommon English at frequency #73,279 among 2,646 “H” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Lacking humor or levity; serious; not funny, amusing, amused, or lighthearted.".

humorless has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From humor + -less. The correct English form is humorless, spelled H-U-M-O-R-L-E-S-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Lacking humor or levity; serious; not funny, amusing, amused, or lighthearted.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. He watched the little dog's antics with a humorless stare.
  2. At the risk of seeming humorless, we would like to point out some problems with the "bisexuality" insurance cartoon which appeared in the April Fool's issue of GCN.

Etymology

From humor + -less.

Synonyms

funny as a dose of the clapjokelesshumorlessirrisiblelaughlessmirthlessnonhumorousunhilariousunhumorousunhystericalunjocoseunjocularunlaughableunmirthful

Antonyms

amusedfunny

This word in other languages

witzlos(Deutsch)

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.

PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "humorless"?
"humorless" is spelled H-U-M-O-R-L-E-S-S.
What does "humorless" mean?
As an adjective, "humorless" means: Lacking humor or levity; serious; not funny, amusing, amused, or lighthearted.
What is the origin of the word "humorless"?
From humor + -less. 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 "humorless", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Highsmith#73,261intendant#73,300Gwendolen#73,245Gorakhpur#73,233

What to do next

You've looked up "humorless". Here's where to go from here.

  • Usage frequency rank #73,279 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more English words in the "H" letter cohort. H–Z browse
  • PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list