irksome
/ˈɜɹksəm/
"irksome" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“irksome” is uncommon English (frequency #64,449 among 2,140 “I” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #64,449
- frequency rank, English
- 2,140
- “I” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Marked by irritation or annoyance; disagreeable; troublesome by reason of long continuance or repetition
Corpus desk
Index EN-irksome · irksome · English
irksome · rank #64,449 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #64,449
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,140
- PHOTO-FINISH intricacy
Nearest frequency peer: intricacy (-1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “irksome”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- institution…
institutionalization
35,554 corpus weight
- intricacy
intricacy
35,553 corpus weight
- irksome
irksome
35,552 corpus weight
- Ironside
Ironside
35,551 corpus weight
- IRT
IRT
35,550 corpus weight
- Isaacson
Isaacson
35,549 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “irksome” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | irksome |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈɜɹksəm/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #64,449 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “irksome” in English
Rare enough to double-check
irksome is uncommon English at frequency #64,449 among 2,140 “I” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈɜɹksəm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Marked by irritation or annoyance; disagreeable; troublesome by reason of long continuance or repetition".
No generated misspelling entries exist for irksome in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English irkesome, irksum, equivalent to irk + -some, or perhaps continuing (in altered form) from Old English weorcsum (“painful, hurtful”). The correct English form is irksome, spelled I-R-K-S-O-M-E.
Definition
- 1Marked by irritation or annoyance; disagreeable; troublesome by reason of long continuance or repetition
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how irksome appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He has this irksome habit of racing up to red lights, so he has to brake heavily.
The young Spaniard had been in many situations of greater difficulty, but in none more irksome.
Etymology
From Middle English irkesome, irksum, equivalent to irk + -some, or perhaps continuing (in altered form) from Old English weorcsum (“painful, hurtful”).
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "irksome", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).