monkey business
/ˈmʌŋkɪ ˌbɪznɪs/
"monkey-business" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“monkey business” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 15
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting.
Corpus desk
Index EN-monkey-business · monkey business · English
monkey business · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 15 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 business |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmʌŋkɪ ˌbɪznɪs/ |
| Letters | 15 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “monkey business” in English
Rare enough to double-check
monkey business is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈmʌŋkɪ ˌbɪznɪs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
monkey business doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From monkey + business, probably a calque of Bengali বাঁদরামি (bãdrami, “mischief”, literally “monkey-behaviour”), from বাঁদর (bãdor, “monkey”) + -আমি (-ami, suffix forming nouns referring to the properties, qualities, or states of the words to which it is … The correct English form is monkey business, spelled M-O-N-K-E-Y- -B-U-S-I-N-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1Activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting.
- 2Activity that is morally questionable or even mildly illegal.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how monkey business appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Stop all this monkey business and do your homework!
I’m going to take off the cuffs, Slim, and off you, Jerry. But don’t try any monkey business. When Peters answers the door, you tell him everything’s O. K., and that you’re the committee, see? Once the door’s open, we’ll do the rest.
Etymology
From monkey + business, probably a calque of Bengali বাঁদরামি (bãdrami, “mischief”, literally “monkey-behaviour”), from বাঁদর (bãdor, “monkey”) + -আমি (-ami, suffix forming nouns referring to the properties, qualities, or states of the words to which it is attached), from the perception that monkeys behave mischievously.
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.