measly
/ˈmiːzli/
"measly" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“measly” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #37,570 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #37,570
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 8
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Particularly of pigs or pork: infected with larval tapeworms or trichinae (parasitic roundworms).
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | measly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈmiːzli/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #37,570 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 8 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “measly” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for measly is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmiːzli/. Corpus data places it at rank #37,570 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for measly, with forms such as "emasly", "maesly", and "mealsy". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 8 confusable-pair relationships, "messy", "meaty", "merely", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From measle (“singular of measles”) + -y; the word measle is either from Middle Dutch masel (“a blister filled with blood; a pustule, a skin blemish”), or Middle Low German masel (“a red skin blemish”), from Proto-Germanic *masuraz (“a knot or scar in wood;… The correct English form is measly, spelled M-E-A-S-L-Y.
Definition
- 1Particularly of pigs or pork: infected with larval tapeworms or trichinae (parasitic roundworms).
- 2Of a person: infected with measles.
- 3Small (especially contemptibly small) in amount.
Etymology
From measle (“singular of measles”) + -y; the word measle is either from Middle Dutch masel (“a blister filled with blood; a pustule, a skin blemish”), or Middle Low German masel (“a red skin blemish”), from Proto-Germanic *masuraz (“a knot or scar in wood; a knarl”), from *mas-, *mēs- (“a spot; a sore; a scar”), from Proto-Indo-European *mos- (“a skin sore”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: emasly,maesly,mealsy,measlly,measlyy,meassly,measyl,mesaly,mmeasly
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of measly - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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Using “measly”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-E-A-S-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmiːzli/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “messy” - see the side-by-side comparison. measly vs messy
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.