sadness
/ˈsædnəs/
"sadness" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sadness” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #8,602 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #8,602
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The state or emotion of being sad.
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 | sadness |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsædnəs/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #8,602 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sadness” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sadness is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsædnəs/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,602 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for sadness, with forms such as "asdness", "saddness", and "sadenss". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "shyness", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English sadnesse, equivalent to sad + -ness. The correct English form is sadness, spelled S-A-D-N-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1The state or emotion of being sad.
- 2An event in one's life that causes sadness.
Etymology
From Middle English sadnesse, equivalent to sad + -ness.
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: asdness,saddness,sadenss,sadnes,sadnness,sadnses,sandess,sdaness,ssadness
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sadness - 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
How do you spell "sadness"?
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Using “sadness”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-A-D-N-E-S-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈsædnəs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “shyness” - see the side-by-side comparison. sadness vs shyness
- 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.