play hooky
"play-hooky" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“play hooky” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To play truant; to avoid (informally: skip) school, work, or other duties (stay away from these without permission nor an excuse); to skive or to bunk off (UK);
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | play hooky |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “play hooky” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
play hooky is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To play truant; to avoid (informally: skip) school, work, or other duties (stay away from these without permission nor an excuse); to skive or to bunk off (UK);".
play hooky doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: See hooky for its origin; the construction of the phrase is in the same vein as play truant. The correct English form is play hooky, spelled P-L-A-Y- -H-O-O-K-Y.
Definition
- 1To play truant; to avoid (informally: skip) school, work, or other duties (stay away from these without permission nor an excuse); to skive or to bunk off (UK);
Etymology
See hooky for its origin; the construction of the phrase is in the same vein as play truant.
Synonyms
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “play hooky”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-L-A-Y- -H-O-O-K-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.