infelicity

noun

"infelicity" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“infelicity” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The condition of being infelicitous.

Corpus desk

Index EN-infelicity · infelicity · English

infelicity · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-5 5 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.

Key facts for infelicity
PropertyValue
Headwordinfelicity
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “infelicity” in English

infelicityranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

infelicity is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for infelicity in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From in- + felicity, from Latin infelicitas. The correct English form is infelicity, spelled I-N-F-E-L-I-C-I-T-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    The condition of being infelicitous.
  2. 2
    Something that is infelicitous or inappropriate

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how infelicity appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The infelicity of this shift of subject only becomes apparent, again retrospectively, in line eight, directly after the reader's encounter with yet another inscrutable Spenserism […]
  2. Returning to our own epistemic situation, we do not know the sense in which quantum mechanics and relativity will be taken to be approximately true after their descriptive infelicities are addressed.

Etymology

From in- + felicity, from Latin infelicitas.

Antonyms

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "infelicity"?
"infelicity" is spelled I-N-F-E-L-I-C-I-T-Y.
What does "infelicity" mean?
As a noun, "infelicity" means: The condition of being infelicitous.
What is the origin of the word "infelicity"?
From in- + felicity, from Latin infelicitas. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list