inelegant
/ɪnˈɛlɪɡənt/
"inelegant" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“inelegant” is uncommon English (frequency #82,408 among 17,902 “I” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #82,408
- frequency rank, English
- 17,902
- “I” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Not elegant; not exhibiting neatness, refinement, or precision.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | inelegant |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ɪnˈɛlɪɡənt/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #82,408 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “inelegant” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
inelegant is uncommon English at frequency #82,408 among 17,902 “I” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ɪnˈɛlɪɡənt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Not elegant; not exhibiting neatness, refinement, or precision.".
Zero misspellings are on record for inelegant in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French inélégant, from Latin inēlegāns; equivalent to in- + elegant. The correct English form is inelegant, spelled I-N-E-L-E-G-A-N-T.
Definition
- 1Not elegant; not exhibiting neatness, refinement, or precision.
Etymology
From Middle French inélégant, from Latin inēlegāns; equivalent to in- + elegant.
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 “inelegant”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-N-E-L-E-G-A-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɪnˈɛlɪɡənt/ (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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.