ill-fated
"ill-fated" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ill-fated” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - unlucky; doomed.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ill-fated · ill-fated · English
ill-fated · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "I" 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 | ill-fated |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “ill-fated” in English
Rare enough to double-check
ill-fated is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "unlucky; doomed.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for ill-fated, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From ill + fated. The correct English form is ill-fated, spelled I-L-L---F-A-T-E-D.
Definition
- 1unlucky; doomed.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ill-fated appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
My grandfather was originally scheduled to travel on the ill-fated last voyage of the RMS Lusitania, but thankfully had to change his plans at the last minute.
The engine of the ill-fated mail was Stephenson, one of Whale's 4-6-0 "Experiment" class, which fact led to sensational outcryings in the daily papers about the scandal of "experimental machines" being used on fast trains!
Etymology
From ill + fated.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.