libelous
/ˈlaɪ.bəl.əs/
"libelous" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“libelous” is an uncommon English word, ranked #62,274 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #62,274
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Defamatory, libeling, referring to something that causes harm to someone's reputation especially with malice or disregard.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | libelous |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈlaɪ.bəl.əs/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #62,274 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “libelous” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for libelous is 8 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈlaɪ.bəl.əs/. Corpus data places it at rank #62,274 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No generated misspelling entries exist for libelous in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From libel + -ous. The correct English form is libelous, spelled L-I-B-E-L-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Defamatory, libeling, referring to something that causes harm to someone's reputation especially with malice or disregard.
- 2Meeting the legal standards for libel.
Etymology
From libel + -ous.
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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Using “libelous”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-I-B-E-L-O-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈlaɪ.bəl.əs/ (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.