lamentable
/ləˈmɛn.tə.bəl/
"lamentable" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lamentable” is an uncommon English word, ranked #54,892 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #54,892
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Causing sorrow, distress or regret; deplorable, pitiful or distressing.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | lamentable |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ləˈmɛn.tə.bəl/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #54,892 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “lamentable” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for lamentable is 10 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ləˈmɛn.tə.bəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #54,892 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Causing sorrow, distress or regret; deplorable, pitiful or distressing.".
lamentable has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English lamentable, from Middle French lamentable, from Latin lāmentābilis (“full of sorrow, mournful; deplorable”), from lāmentor (“lament”), from lāmenta (“wailing, weeping”). By surface analysis, lament + -able. The correct English form is lamentable, spelled L-A-M-E-N-T-A-B-L-E.
Definition
- 1Causing sorrow, distress or regret; deplorable, pitiful or distressing.
Etymology
From Middle English lamentable, from Middle French lamentable, from Latin lāmentābilis (“full of sorrow, mournful; deplorable”), from lāmentor (“lament”), from lāmenta (“wailing, weeping”). By surface analysis, lament + -able.
Synonyms
Antonyms
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.
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Using “lamentable”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-A-M-E-N-T-A-B-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ləˈmɛn.tə.bəl/ (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.