hungry
/ˈhʌŋ.ɡɹi/
"hungry" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hungry” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #3,307 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #3,307
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Affected by hunger; having the physical need for food.
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 | hungry |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈhʌŋ.ɡɹi/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #3,307 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hungry” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for hungry is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈhʌŋ.ɡɹi/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,307 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for hungry, with forms such as "hhungry", "hnugry", and "hugnry". 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 7 confusable-pair relationships, "hurry", "hunky", "hung", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English hungry, from Old English hungriġ, from Proto-West Germanic *hungrug, from Proto-Germanic *hungrugaz (“hungry”); equivalent to hunger + -y. Cognate with West Frisian hongerich (“hungry”), Dutch hongerig (“hungry”), German hungrig (“hungry… The correct English form is hungry, spelled H-U-N-G-R-Y.
Definition
- 1Affected by hunger; having the physical need for food.
- 2Causing hunger.
- 3Eager; having an avid desire or appetite for something.
- 4Not rich or fertile; poor; barren; starved.
Etymology
From Middle English hungry, from Old English hungriġ, from Proto-West Germanic *hungrug, from Proto-Germanic *hungrugaz (“hungry”); equivalent to hunger + -y. Cognate with West Frisian hongerich (“hungry”), Dutch hongerig (“hungry”), German hungrig (“hungry”), Swedish hungrig (“hungry”), Icelandic hungraður (“hungry”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hhungry,hnugry,hugnry,hunggry,hungrry,hungryy,hungyr,hunngry,hunrgy,uhngry
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of hungry - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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
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Using “hungry”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-U-N-G-R-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈhʌŋ.ɡɹi/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “hurry” - see the side-by-side comparison. hungry vs hurry
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.