parlous
/ˈpɑːləs/
"parlous" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“parlous” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Attended with peril; dangerous, risky.
Corpus desk
Index EN-parlous · parlous · English
parlous · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" 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 | parlous |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈpɑːləs/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “parlous” in English
Rare enough to double-check
parlous is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈpɑːləs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for parlous in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English parles, parlous, perlous, [and other forms], a contraction of perilous (“dangerous; dreadful, terrible; morally corrupt, sinful, wicked; inauspicious, unlucky”) (and thus a doublet of perilous), from Old French perilleus, perillos, peril… The correct English form is parlous, spelled P-A-R-L-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Attended with peril; dangerous, risky.
- 2Appalling, dire, terrible.
- 3Dangerously clever or cunning; also, remarkably good or unusual.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how parlous appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The situation became parlous when the weather made resupply impossible.
[B]ables and comedies are parlous fellowes to decipher, and diſcourage men (that is the point) with their wittie flowtes and learned jerkes, enough to laſh any man out of countenance.
Etymology
From Middle English parles, parlous, perlous, [and other forms], a contraction of perilous (“dangerous; dreadful, terrible; morally corrupt, sinful, wicked; inauspicious, unlucky”) (and thus a doublet of perilous), from Old French perilleus, perillos, perillous, perilluse, perilleuse, perilleux (“very dangerous, perilous”) (modern French périlleux), from Latin perīculōsus (“dangerous, hazardous, perilous”), from perīculum (“danger, hazard, peril, risk”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to go through, carry forth, try”)) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of, prone to’ forming adjectives).
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.