light-footed

adj

"light-footed" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“light-footed” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
12
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Fast on one's feet, not plodding; nimble, agile.

Corpus desk

Index EN-light-footed · light-footed · English

light-footed · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "L" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for light-footed
PropertyValue
Headwordlight-footed
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “light-footed” in English

light-footedsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

light-footed is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Fast on one's feet, not plodding; nimble, agile.".

light-footed doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English liȝtfoted, liht fotyd, alteration of earlier lyghtfote, liȝtt-fot (“light-footed”), equivalent to light + foot + -ed. The correct English form is light-footed, spelled L-I-G-H-T---F-O-O-T-E-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    Fast on one's feet, not plodding; nimble, agile.

Etymology

From Middle English liȝtfoted, liht fotyd, alteration of earlier lyghtfote, liȝtt-fot (“light-footed”), equivalent to light + foot + -ed.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "light-footed"?
"light-footed" is spelled L-I-G-H-T---F-O-O-T-E-D.
What does "light-footed" mean?
As an adjective, "light-footed" means: Fast on one's feet, not plodding; nimble, agile.
What is the origin of the word "light-footed"?
From Middle English liȝtfoted, liht fotyd, alteration of earlier lyghtfote, liȝtt-fot (“light-footed”), equivalent to light + foot + -ed. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
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Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list