pokey
/ˈpoʊ.ki/
"pokey" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pokey” is uncommon English (frequency #50,725 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #50,725
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - of small volume, cramped (of a room, house)
Corpus desk
Index EN-pokey · pokey · English
pokey · rank #50,725 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #50,725
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH plover
Nearest frequency peer: plover (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “pokey”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- PHY
PHY
49,280 corpus weight
- pidgin
pidgin
49,279 corpus weight
- pinker
pinker
49,278 corpus weight
- plover
plover
49,277 corpus weight
- pokey
pokey
49,276 corpus weight
- policewoman
policewoman
49,274 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “pokey” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pokey |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈpoʊ.ki/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #50,725 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “pokey” in English
Rare enough to double-check
pokey is uncommon English at frequency #50,725 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈpoʊ.ki/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for pokey, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is pokey, spelled P-O-K-E-Y.
Definition
- 1of small volume, cramped (of a room, house)
- 2slow
- 3fast
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how pokey appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He loved the little pokey kitchen, where men’s boots tramped, and the dog slept with one eye open for fear of being trodden on; where the lamp hung over the table at night, and everything was so silent.
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); 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 "pokey"?
What does "pokey" mean?
How do you pronounce "pokey"?
What language does "pokey" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "pokey", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).