poker-faced

adj

"poker-faced" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“poker-faced” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
11
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Wearing a poker face: studiously neutral in facial expression; giving nothing away.

Corpus desk

Index EN-poker-faced · poker-faced · English

poker-faced · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-4 4 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.

Key facts for poker-faced
PropertyValue
Headwordpoker-faced
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters11
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “poker-faced” sits in English frequency

poker-faced falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

poker-faced is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Wearing a poker face: studiously neutral in facial expression; giving nothing away.".

poker-faced doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From the attitude necessary in the game of poker, since one is ill-advised to reveal delight at being dealt a winning hand lest other players decline to bet (or contrariwise, show disappointment at a poor hand if one is inclined to bluff). The correct English form is poker-faced, spelled P-O-K-E-R---F-A-C-E-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    Wearing a poker face: studiously neutral in facial expression; giving nothing away.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. John, in his most poker-faced manner, continued to explain the rules.
  2. Harold Lloyd had had one or two minor comic brushes with railway trains, but the first man to produce real comedy from locomotives was the great poker-faced clown, Buster Keaton.

Etymology

From the attitude necessary in the game of poker, since one is ill-advised to reveal delight at being dealt a winning hand lest other players decline to bet (or contrariwise, show disappointment at a poor hand if one is inclined to bluff).

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.

PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "poker-faced"?
"poker-faced" is spelled P-O-K-E-R---F-A-C-E-D.
What does "poker-faced" mean?
As an adjective, "poker-faced" means: Wearing a poker face: studiously neutral in facial expression; giving nothing away.
What is the origin of the word "poker-faced"?
From the attitude necessary in the game of poker, since one is ill-advised to reveal delight at being dealt a winning hand lest other players decline to bet (or contrariwise, show disappointment at a poor hand if one is inclined to bluff). 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.
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list