in-law
"in-law" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“in-law” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A relative by marriage (or through affinity).
Corpus desk
Index EN-in-law · in-law · English
in-law · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 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 | in-law |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “in-law” in English
Rare enough to double-check
in-law is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
in-law doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Back-formation from -in-law. The correct English form is in-law, spelled I-N---L-A-W.
Definition
- 1A relative by marriage (or through affinity).
- 2Sometimes specifically a parent-in-law of one's child, for which the dedicated terms co-mother-in-law, co-father-in-law are rare.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how in-law appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Louie: 'Neither boiling nor baking can diminish this creature's overpowering musky scent. Only suitable for serving to unpleasant in-laws.'
Etymology
Back-formation from -in-law.
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.