lateness
/ˈleɪt.nɪs/
"lateness" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lateness” is uncommon English (frequency #60,229 among 2,297 “L” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #60,229
- frequency rank, English
- 2,297
- “L” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The state of being late.
Corpus desk
Index EN-lateness · lateness · English
lateness · rank #60,229 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #60,229
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH Laotian
Nearest frequency peer: Laotian (-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 “lateness”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Kyla
Kyla
39,778 corpus weight
- laconic
laconic
39,776 corpus weight
- lamentation
lamentation
39,774 corpus weight
- Laotian
Laotian
39,773 corpus weight
- lateness
lateness
39,772 corpus weight
- Legrand
Legrand
39,765 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “lateness” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | lateness |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈleɪt.nɪs/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #60,229 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “lateness” in English
Rare enough to double-check
lateness is uncommon English at frequency #60,229 among 2,297 “L” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈleɪt.nɪs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The state of being late.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for lateness, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From late + -ness. The correct English form is lateness, spelled L-A-T-E-N-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1The state of being late.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how lateness appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
His chronic lateness will cost him a promotion if not his job.
A 40 m.p.h. slack at West Ruislip, quickly followed by a 30 m.p.h. slack at Gerrards Cross, increased our lateness to four minutes at High Wycombe.
Etymology
From late + -ness.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "lateness", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).