nefarious
/nɪˈfɛəɹi.əs/
"nefarious" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“nefarious” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #29,010 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #29,010
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Sinful, villainous, criminal, or wicked, especially when noteworthy or notorious for such characteristics.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nefarious |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /nɪˈfɛəɹi.əs/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #29,010 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “nefarious” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for nefarious is 9 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /nɪˈfɛəɹi.əs/. Corpus data places it at rank #29,010 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Sinful, villainous, criminal, or wicked, especially when noteworthy or notorious for such characteristics.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for nefarious, with forms such as "enfarious", "neafrious", and "nefairous". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin nefārius (“execrable, abominable”), from nefās (“something contrary to divine law, an impious deed, sin, crime”), from ne- (“not”) + fās (“the dictates of religion, divine law”), which is related to Latin for (“to speak, to say”) and cognate to A… The correct English form is nefarious, spelled N-E-F-A-R-I-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Sinful, villainous, criminal, or wicked, especially when noteworthy or notorious for such characteristics.
Etymology
From Latin nefārius (“execrable, abominable”), from nefās (“something contrary to divine law, an impious deed, sin, crime”), from ne- (“not”) + fās (“the dictates of religion, divine law”), which is related to Latin for (“to speak, to say”) and cognate to Ancient Greek φημί (phēmí, “to say”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: enfarious,neafrious,nefairous,nefariosu,nefariouss,nefariuos,nefaroius,nefarrious,neffarious,nefraious,nfearious,nnefarious
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of nefarious - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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Using “nefarious”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is N-E-F-A-R-I-O-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /nɪˈfɛəɹi.əs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.