ominously
/ˈɒmɪnəsli/
"ominously" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ominously” is an uncommon English word, ranked #51,888 in English word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #51,888
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - In an ominous manner; with sinister foreboding.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ominously |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | /ˈɒmɪnəsli/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #51,888 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ominously” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ominously is 9 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɒmɪnəsli/. Corpus data places it at rank #51,888 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "In an ominous manner; with sinister foreboding.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for ominously in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From ominous + -ly. The correct English form is ominously, spelled O-M-I-N-O-U-S-L-Y.
Definition
- 1In an ominous manner; with sinister foreboding.
Etymology
From ominous + -ly.
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 “ominously”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is O-M-I-N-O-U-S-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɒmɪnəsli/ (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.