murk
/mɝk/
"murk" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“murk” is uncommon English (frequency #72,572 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #72,572
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Dark, murky.
Corpus desk
Index EN-murk · murk · English
murk · rank #72,572 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #72,572
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH Munchausen
Nearest frequency peer: Munchausen (-3 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 “murk”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- MTI
MTI
27,437 corpus weight
- mudra
mudra
27,435 corpus weight
- Munchausen
Munchausen
27,432 corpus weight
- murk
murk
27,429 corpus weight
- nade
nade
27,426 corpus weight
- NCB
NCB
27,422 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “murk” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | murk |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /mɝk/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #72,572 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “murk” in English
Rare enough to double-check
murk is uncommon English at frequency #72,572 among 4,057 “M” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /mɝk/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Dark, murky.".
murk 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, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English merke, mirke, from Old English mirce, myrce (“dark, gloomy, evil”) and Old Norse myrkr (“dark, murky”), both from Proto-Germanic *merkuz (“dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *mergʷ- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”). Cognate Danish mør… The correct English form is murk, spelled M-U-R-K.
Definition
- 1Dark, murky.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how murk appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He cannot see through the mantle murk.
Etymology
From Middle English merke, mirke, from Old English mirce, myrce (“dark, gloomy, evil”) and Old Norse myrkr (“dark, murky”), both from Proto-Germanic *merkuz (“dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *mergʷ- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”). Cognate Danish mørk (“dark”), Norwegian mørk (“dark”), Swedish mörk (“dark”), Icelandic myrkur (“dark”), as also Albanian murg (“dark”), Proto-Slavic *morkъ (“darkness”), Lithuanian márgas (“multicolored”), murzinas (“dirty, spoiled”), Ancient Greek ἀμορβός (amorbós, “dark”).
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 "murk", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).