irregardless
/ˌɪɹɪˈɡɑːdlɪs/
"irregardless" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“irregardless” is an uncommon English word, ranked #89,490 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #89,490
- frequency rank, English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Irrespective, regardless.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | irregardless |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˌɪɹɪˈɡɑːdlɪs/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #89,490 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “irregardless” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for irregardless is 12 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌɪɹɪˈɡɑːdlɪs/. Corpus data places it at rank #89,490 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Irrespective, regardless.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for irregardless, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Probably a blend of irrespective + regardless; the word can also be analysed as ir- + regardless because it is possible that the prefix ir- was added to amplify the negative in regardless just as plain negatives often did at the time the word came into use … The correct English form is irregardless, spelled I-R-R-E-G-A-R-D-L-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1Irrespective, regardless.
Etymology
Probably a blend of irrespective + regardless; the word can also be analysed as ir- + regardless because it is possible that the prefix ir- was added to amplify the negative in regardless just as plain negatives often did at the time the word came into use (and still do in dialects).
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 “irregardless”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-R-R-E-G-A-R-D-L-E-S-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌɪɹɪˈɡɑːdlɪs/ (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
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.