more or less
/mɔɹ ɔɹ lɛs/
"more-or-less" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“more or less” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Approximately.
Corpus desk
Index EN-more-or-less · more or less · English
more or less · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-4 4 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 | more or less |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | /mɔɹ ɔɹ lɛs/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “more or less” in English
Rare enough to double-check
more or less is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed /mɔɹ ɔɹ lɛs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for more or less in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is more or less, spelled M-O-R-E- -O-R- -L-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1Approximately.
- 2Almost.
- 3To varying extents, across instances; to an extent that varies among cases.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how more or less appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
There were a hundred people in the room, more or less.
The sporophyte foot is also characteristic: it is very broad and more or less lenticular or disciform, as broad or broader than the calyptra stalk[…], and is sessile on the calyptra base[…]
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.