painless

adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"painless" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“painless” has 10 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #23,625. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#23,625
frequency rank, English
4,417
“P” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
3
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Free from pain; without pain or trouble.

Corpus desk

Index EN-painless · painless · English

painless · rank #23,625 · 10 variants · 3 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #23,625
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,417
  • PHOTO-FINISH overtly

Nearest frequency peer: overtly (-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.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “painless”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “painless” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

painless vs princess
75% similar
painless vs painters
75% similar
painless vs pointless
78% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for painless
PropertyValue
Headwordpainless
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters8
Frequency rank#23,625
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “painless”

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).painlesslands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “overtly” (#23,624), “Paxton” (#23,626), “Pears” (#23,627). Among 4,417 “P” headwords, “painless” is #23,625. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around painless, anadjective. Corpus frequency is #23,625 among 4,417 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for painless, with forms such as "apinless", "pailness", and "painelss". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "princess", "painters", "pointless", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English paynles, peynlees, equivalent to pain + -less. Compare West Frisian pynleas (“painless”), Dutch pijnloos (“painless”). The correct English form is painless, spelled P-A-I-N-L-E-S-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Free from pain; without pain or trouble.
  2. 2
    Not difficult; easy.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how painless appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. There are now washless dishes, painless razors, painless shoes, painless corsets, prepared soups, painless photographs (it used to give you a stiff neck for three days to have your picture taken)[…]
  2. At first it seemed like a very painless way to get my work done and I told Milly to let me sleepwrite as much as I liked. We discovered, however, that although my subconscious might lead me to the typewriter, it couldn't make me think.

Etymology

From Middle English paynles, peynlees, equivalent to pain + -less. Compare West Frisian pynleas (“painless”), Dutch pijnloos (“painless”).

Antonyms

painful

This word in other languages

indoloro(Español)indolore(Français)schmerzfrei(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • apinless
  • pailness
  • painelss
  • painles
  • painlless
  • painlses
  • painnless
  • paniless
  • pianless
  • ppainless

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of painless - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

apinless2pailness2painelss2painles1painlless1painlses2painnless1paniless2
Edit distance from "painless"

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

How do you spell "painless"?
"painless" is spelled P-A-I-N-L-E-S-S.
What does "painless" mean?
As an adjective, "painless" means: Free from pain; without pain or trouble.
What words are commonly confused with "painless"?
"painless" is commonly confused with "princess", "painters", "pointless". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What is the origin of the word "painless"?
From Middle English paynles, peynlees, equivalent to pain + -less. Compare West Frisian pynleas (“painless”), Dutch pijnloos (“painless”). 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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "painless", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

politico#23,635prenatal#23,636McMillan#23,596Rockford#23,660

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

probate10 variantsprocure10 variantsPunjabi10 variantsmanhood10 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list