monkey around
"monkey-around" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“monkey around” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To act foolishly.
Corpus desk
Index EN-monkey-around · monkey around · English
monkey around · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "M" 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 | monkey around |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “monkey around” in English
Rare enough to double-check
monkey around is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To act foolishly.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for monkey around, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is monkey around, spelled M-O-N-K-E-Y- -A-R-O-U-N-D.
Definition
- 1To act foolishly.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how monkey around appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I wanna be a man, mancub / And stroll right into town / And be just like the other men / I'm tired of monkeyin' around!
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.