lily-livered
"lily-livered" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lily-livered” 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) - Cowardly, lacking courage.
Corpus desk
Index EN-lily-livered · lily-livered · English
lily-livered · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-5 5 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 | lily-livered |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “lily-livered” in English
Rare enough to double-check
lily-livered is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Cowardly, lacking courage.".
No misspelling variants are generated for lily-livered 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, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: The first known uses of lily-livered are in William Shakespeare’s works written c. 1603–1606; see quotations below. From the medieval belief that the liver was the seat of courage, and the pale color of the lily flower. A person who had no blood in their li… The correct English form is lily-livered, spelled L-I-L-Y---L-I-V-E-R-E-D.
Definition
- 1Cowardly, lacking courage.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how lily-livered appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Stew[ard],^([sic]) What doſt thou know me for? / Kent. […] [A] lilly lyuer'd action taking knaue, […] one that would'ſt bee a baud in way of good ſeruice, and art nothing but the compoſition of a knaue, begger, coward, pander, and the ſonne and heire of a mungrell bitch, […]
Go pricke thy face, and ouer-red thy feare / Thou Lilly-liuer'd Boy.
Etymology
The first known uses of lily-livered are in William Shakespeare’s works written c. 1603–1606; see quotations below. From the medieval belief that the liver was the seat of courage, and the pale color of the lily flower. A person who had no blood in their liver would have no courage and would thus be a coward. Equivalent to lily + livered.
Synonyms
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.