not half bad
"not-half-bad" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“not half bad” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. 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) - Pretty good, imperfect but more than OK.
Corpus desk
Index EN-not-half-bad · not half bad · English
not half bad · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "N" 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 | not half bad |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “not half bad” in English
Rare enough to double-check
not half bad is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Pretty good, imperfect but more than OK.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for not half bad in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Variant of not bad. Compare not half. The correct English form is not half bad, spelled N-O-T- -H-A-L-F- -B-A-D.
Definition
- 1Pretty good, imperfect but more than OK.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how not half bad appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
It was his first attempt at cooking, but I tried it and it was not half bad.
Etymology
Variant of not bad. Compare not half.
Synonyms
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.