pretty much

adv

"pretty-much" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“pretty much” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as an adverb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
11
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Almost completely; very nearly; mostly; more or less; basically.

Key facts for pretty much
PropertyValue
Headwordpretty much
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdverb
Letters11
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “pretty much” sits in English frequency

pretty much 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.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for pretty much is 11 letters long, classified as an adverb. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Almost completely; very nearly; mostly; more or less; basically.".

pretty much doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is pretty much, spelled P-R-E-T-T-Y- -M-U-C-H.

Definition

  1. 1
    Almost completely; very nearly; mostly; more or less; basically.

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

How do you spell "pretty much"?
"pretty much" is spelled P-R-E-T-T-Y- -M-U-C-H.
What does "pretty much" mean?
As an adverb, "pretty much" means: Almost completely; very nearly; mostly; more or less; basically.
What language does "pretty much" come from?
"pretty much" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Using “pretty much”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is P-R-E-T-T-Y- -M-U-C-H - 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list