libelous
/ˈlaɪ.bəl.əs/
"libelous" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“libelous” is uncommon English (frequency #62,274 among 2,297 “L” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #62,274
- frequency rank, English
- 2,297
- “L” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Defamatory, libeling, referring to something that causes harm to someone's reputation especially with malice or disregard.
Corpus desk
Index EN-libelous · libelous · English
libelous · rank #62,274 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #62,274
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH lessor
Nearest frequency peer: lessor (-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 “libelous”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Lesbos
Lesbos
37,729 corpus weight
- lessor
lessor
37,728 corpus weight
- libelous
libelous
37,727 corpus weight
- Limon
Limon
37,725 corpus weight
- Lindstrom
Lindstrom
37,724 corpus weight
- Linklater
Linklater
37,723 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “libelous” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| 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) |
Long-tail rank of “libelous” in English
Rare enough to double-check
libelous is uncommon English at frequency #62,274 among 2,297 “L” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈlaɪ.bəl.əs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how libelous appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The accusation was libelous, full of falsehoods, spite and malice.
The court found the statement was not libelous because it was true.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "libelous", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).