loneliness
/ˈloʊnlinəs/noun
loneliness is spelled L-O-N-E-L-I-N-E-S-S. The wrong spelling people search most is lonliness: about 400 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Loneliness is a noun meaning “A feeling of depression resulting from being alone or from having no companions”. The plural of loneliness is lonelinesses.
How many letters and syllables are in loneliness?
| Letters | 10: L-O-N-E-L-I-N-E-S-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.5 times per million words; the 12,045th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, lonliness, about 400 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell loneliness?
Loneliness is spelled L-O-N-E-L-I-N-E-S-S. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for loneliness in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is loneliness?
Loneliness appears 4.5 times per million words in written English, the 12,045th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce loneliness?
- US /ˈloʊnlinəs/
Loneliness has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-loneliness.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of loneliness
- lonelinesses plural
- lanelines
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does loneliness mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A feeling of depression resulting from being alone or from having no companions.
The loneliness resulting from the loss of loved ones, lack of purpose in life, and social discrimination is a real inner hell.
- 2
The condition or state of being alone or having no companions.
- 3
The state of being unfrequented or devoid of human activity (of a place or time).
- 4
obsoleteA desire to be alone; disposition to solitude.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Loneliness in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense condition of being lonely:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | solitude |
| German | Einsamkeit |
| Portuguese | solidão |
| Spanish | soledad |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does loneliness come from?
From lonely + -ness.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).