English Word Reference Free

nervousness

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

11 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

open dictionary

Access

Free

no sign-up needed

Detailed reference entry for the English word "nervousness", 11-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "nervousness" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "nervousness" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

nervousness is aEnglishnoun. It means: The state or quality of being nervous.

Compare similar words

See how nervousness compares against similar English words.

Browse all word comparisons →
Key facts for nervousness
PropertyValue
Headwordnervousness
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters11
Frequency rank#27,580
Misspellings tracked15
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of nervousness in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for nervousness is 11 letters long, classified as anoun. Corpus data places it at rank #27,580 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The state or quality of being nervous.".

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 15 documented wrong-spelling variants for nervousness, with forms such as "enrvousness", "nerovusness", and "nerrvousness". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From nervous + -ness. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is nervousness, spelled N-E-R-V-O-U-S-N-E-S-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    The state or quality of being nervous.

Etymology

From nervous + -ness.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: enrvousness,nerovusness,nerrvousness,nervosuness,nervounsess,nervousenss,nervousnes,nervousnness,nervousnses,nervoussness,nervuosness,nervvousness,nevrousness,nnervousness,nrevousness

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for nervousness

Misspelling Variants of "nervousness"

enrvousness11nerovusness11nerrvousness12nervosuness11nervounsess11nervousenss11nervousnes10nervousnness12
Misspelling Variants of "nervousness"

Frequency rank: #27,580 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "nervousness"?
"nervousness" is spelled N-E-R-V-O-U-S-N-E-S-S.
What does "nervousness" mean?
As a noun, "nervousness" means: The state or quality of being nervous.
What are common misspellings of "nervousness"?
Common misspellings include "enrvousness", "nerovusness", "nerrvousness", "nervosuness", "nervounsess". The correct spelling is "nervousness".
What is the origin of the word "nervousness"?
From nervous + -ness. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter N in our English index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.