nubile
/ˈnubaɪl/
"nubile" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“nubile” is uncommon English (frequency #71,746 among 1,534 “N” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #71,746
- frequency rank, English
- 1,534
- “N” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of an age suitable for marriage; marriageable (principally of a young woman).
Corpus desk
Index EN-nubile · nubile · English
nubile · rank #71,746 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #71,746
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,534
- PHOTO-FINISH nucleoside
Nearest frequency peer: nucleoside (+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 “nubile”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- NPO
NPO
28,260 corpus weight
- NSL
NSL
28,258 corpus weight
- nubile
nubile
28,255 corpus weight
- nucleoside
nucleoside
28,254 corpus weight
- O'Donovan
O'Donovan
28,251 corpus weight
- octet
octet
28,249 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “nubile” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nubile |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈnubaɪl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #71,746 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “nubile” in English
Rare enough to double-check
nubile is uncommon English at frequency #71,746 among 1,534 “N” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈnubaɪl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for nubile, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French nubile, from Latin nūbilis (“marriageable”), from nūbō (“marry, to take as husband”), from Proto-Indo-European *snewbʰ- (“to marry, to wed”). Possibly cognate with Ancient Greek νύμφη (númphē, “bride, young wife, nymph”) (English nymph), but thi… The correct English form is nubile, spelled N-U-B-I-L-E.
Definition
- 1Of an age suitable for marriage; marriageable (principally of a young woman).
- 2Sexually attractive (especially of a young woman).
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how nubile appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
"Pretty little thing, isn't she?" said Mrs. Budge huskily, and panted two or three times. "Yes," Denis nodded agreement. Sixteen, slender, but nubile, he said to himself, and laid up the phrase in his memory as a happy one.
Etymology
From French nubile, from Latin nūbilis (“marriageable”), from nūbō (“marry, to take as husband”), from Proto-Indo-European *snewbʰ- (“to marry, to wed”). Possibly cognate with Ancient Greek νύμφη (númphē, “bride, young wife, nymph”) (English nymph), but this is disputed.
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 "nubile", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).