ruefully
"ruefully" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ruefully” is an uncommon English word, ranked #65,474 in English word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #65,474
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - In a rueful manner; causing, feeling, or expressing regret or sorrow.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ruefully |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #65,474 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ruefully” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ruefully is 8 letters long, classified as an adverb. Corpus data places it at rank #65,474 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "In a rueful manner; causing, feeling, or expressing regret or sorrow.".
No misspelling variants are generated for ruefully in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From rueful + -ly. The correct English form is ruefully, spelled R-U-E-F-U-L-L-Y.
Definition
- 1In a rueful manner; causing, feeling, or expressing regret or sorrow.
Etymology
From rueful + -ly.
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.
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Using “ruefully”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-U-E-F-U-L-L-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.