muggy
/ˈmʌɡi/
"muggy" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“muggy” is uncommon English (frequency #51,266 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #51,266
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Humid, or hot and humid.
Corpus desk
Index EN-muggy · muggy · English
muggy · rank #51,266 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #51,266
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH mouton
Nearest frequency peer: mouton (-1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “muggy”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- monteith
monteith
48,738 corpus weight
- mouton
mouton
48,736 corpus weight
- muggy
muggy
48,735 corpus weight
- mulled
mulled
48,734 corpus weight
- multiplicat…
multiplicative
48,733 corpus weight
- muting
muting
48,732 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “muggy” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | muggy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈmʌɡi/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #51,266 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “muggy” in English
Rare enough to double-check
muggy is uncommon English at frequency #51,266 among 4,057 “M” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈmʌɡi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for muggy in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From dialectal English mug (“fog, mist; Scotch mist”) + -y, ultimately from Old Norse mugga (“drizzle, mist”); borrowed some time before 1390, when a derived verb, Middle English mugen (“of a fog: to drizzle”), is attested. The correct English form is muggy, spelled M-U-G-G-Y.
Definition
- 1Humid, or hot and humid.
- 2Wet or mouldy.
- 3Drunk.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how muggy appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The next was a very unpropitious morning for a journey—muggy, damp, and drizzly.
What struck me as the most curious thing about this wonderful river was: how did the air keep fresh? It was muggy and thick, no doubt, but still not sufficiently so to render it bad or even remarkably unpleasant.
Etymology
From dialectal English mug (“fog, mist; Scotch mist”) + -y, ultimately from Old Norse mugga (“drizzle, mist”); borrowed some time before 1390, when a derived verb, Middle English mugen (“of a fog: to drizzle”), is attested.
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); 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "muggy", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).