idleness
/ˈaɪdəlnəs/
"idleness" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“idleness” is an uncommon English word, ranked #54,244 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #54,244
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The state of being idle; inactivity.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | idleness |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈaɪdəlnəs/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #54,244 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “idleness” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for idleness is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈaɪdəlnəs/. Corpus data places it at rank #54,244 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Zero misspellings are on record for idleness in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English ydelnesse, from Old English īdelnes, from Proto-West Germanic *īdalnassī, equivalent to idle + -ness. Cognate with Old Frisian īdelnisse (“idelness”), obsolete Dutch ijdelnis, Old Saxon īdalnussi (“idleness, vanity”), Old High German īta… The correct English form is idleness, spelled I-D-L-E-N-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1The state of being idle; inactivity.
- 2The state of being indolent; indolence.
- 3Groundlessness; worthlessness; triviality; vanity; frivolity.
Etymology
From Middle English ydelnesse, from Old English īdelnes, from Proto-West Germanic *īdalnassī, equivalent to idle + -ness. Cognate with Old Frisian īdelnisse (“idelness”), obsolete Dutch ijdelnis, Old Saxon īdalnussi (“idleness, vanity”), Old High German ītalnissa (“idleness, vanity, emptiness”).
This word in other languages
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 “idleness”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-D-L-E-N-E-S-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈaɪdəlnəs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.