like a blue-arsed fly
"like-a-blue-arsed-fly" is a 17-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“like a blue-arsed fly” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 21
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To be frantic, harried or restless
Corpus desk
Index EN-like-a-blue-arsed-fly · like a blue-arsed fly · English
like a blue-arsed fly · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 21 letters
- VOW-8 8 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | like a blue-arsed fly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 21 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “like a blue-arsed fly” in English
Rare enough to double-check
like a blue-arsed fly is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To be frantic, harried or restless".
No misspelling variants are generated for like a blue-arsed fly in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. 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: Refers to the frenetic flight of a bluebottle. The correct English form is like a blue-arsed fly, spelled L-I-K-E- -A- -B-L-U-E---A-R-S-E-D- -F-L-Y.
Definition
- 1To be frantic, harried or restless
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how like a blue-arsed fly appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He was running around like a blue-arsed fly.
Etymology
Refers to the frenetic flight of a bluebottle.
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.