legwork
/ˈlɛɡˌwɜːk/
"legwork" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“legwork” is uncommon English (frequency #52,451 among 2,297 “L” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #52,451
- frequency rank, English
- 2,297
- “L” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Work, especially research or preparation, that involves significant walking, travel, or similar effort.
Corpus desk
Index EN-legwork · legwork · English
legwork · rank #52,451 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #52,451
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH lech
Nearest frequency peer: lech (-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 “legwork”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- latrine
latrine
47,555 corpus weight
- leasehold
leasehold
47,552 corpus weight
- lech
lech
47,551 corpus weight
- legwork
legwork
47,550 corpus weight
- leng
leng
47,549 corpus weight
- liaise
liaise
47,546 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “legwork” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | legwork |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈlɛɡˌwɜːk/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #52,451 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “legwork” in English
Rare enough to double-check
legwork is uncommon English at frequency #52,451 among 2,297 “L” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈlɛɡˌwɜːk/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for legwork, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From leg + work. The correct English form is legwork, spelled L-E-G-W-O-R-K.
Definition
- 1Work, especially research or preparation, that involves significant walking, travel, or similar effort.
- 2Skillful or vigorous use of the legs, as in dance or sports.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how legwork appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
In addition to spreading more information, brokers are going to have to do some leg work to get new customers.
The worldwide effort has already revealed several valuable lessons [including] . . . the use of old-fashioned legwork in tracking down people who may unknowingly carry a virus.
Etymology
From leg + work.
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 "legwork", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).