scaredy pants

noun

"scaredy-pants" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“scaredy pants” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A notional pair of trousers or underwear worn by someone when acting cowardly.

Corpus desk

Index EN-scaredy-pants · scaredy pants · English

scaredy pants · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "S" 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 scaredy pants
PropertyValue
Headwordscaredy pants
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “scaredy pants” in English

scaredy pantsranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

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

Rare enough to double-check

scaredy pants is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for scaredy pants in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From scared + -y + -pants. The correct English form is scaredy pants, spelled S-C-A-R-E-D-Y- -P-A-N-T-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    A notional pair of trousers or underwear worn by someone when acting cowardly.
  2. 2
    Synonym of scaredy-cat.

Etymology

From scared + -y + -pants.

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 "scaredy pants"?
"scaredy pants" is spelled S-C-A-R-E-D-Y- -P-A-N-T-S.
What does "scaredy pants" mean?
As a noun, "scaredy pants" means: A notional pair of trousers or underwear worn by someone when acting cowardly.
What is the origin of the word "scaredy pants"?
From scared + -y + -pants. 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list