plucky
/ˈplʌki/
"plucky" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“plucky” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #46,111 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #46,111
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Having or showing pluck, courage or spirit in trying circumstances.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | plucky |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈplʌki/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #46,111 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “plucky” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for plucky is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈplʌki/. Corpus data places it at rank #46,111 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Having or showing pluck, courage or spirit in trying circumstances.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for plucky, with forms such as "lpucky", "plcuky", and "pllucky". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "puck", "picky", "pluck", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From pluck (“nerve, persistence”) + -y. The correct English form is plucky, spelled P-L-U-C-K-Y.
Definition
- 1Having or showing pluck, courage or spirit in trying circumstances.
Etymology
From pluck (“nerve, persistence”) + -y.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: lpucky,plcuky,pllucky,pluccky,pluckky,pluckyy,plucyk,plukcy,pplucky,pulcky
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of plucky - 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.
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 “plucky”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-L-U-C-K-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈplʌki/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “puck” - see the side-by-side comparison. plucky vs puck
- 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.