# measly

> English word · Adjective · IPA /ˈmiːzli/ · frequency rank #37,570

## Definitions
1. Particularly of pigs or pork: infected with larval tapeworms or trichinae (parasitic roundworms).
2. Of a person: infected with measles.
3. Small (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”).

## Easily confused with
- **messy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/measly-vs-messy)
- **meaty** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/measly-vs-meaty)
- **merely** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/measly-vs-merely)
- **Mersey** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/measly-vs-mersey)
- **meal** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meal-vs-measly)
- **manly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/manly-vs-measly)
- **madly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/madly-vs-measly)
- **measles** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/measles-vs-measly)

## Common misspellings (9)
`emasly`, `maesly`, `mealsy`, `measlly`, `measlyy`, `meassly`, `measyl`, `mesaly`, `mmeasly`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/measly