scornful
/ˈskɔɹnfəl/
"scornful" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“scornful” is uncommon English (frequency #67,814 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #67,814
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Showing scorn or disrespect; contemptuous; scathing; withering.
Corpus desk
Index EN-scornful · scornful · English
scornful · rank #67,814 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #67,814
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH scrunch
Nearest frequency peer: scrunch (+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 “scornful”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- samaj
samaj
32,193 corpus weight
- Scharf
Scharf
32,189 corpus weight
- scornful
scornful
32,187 corpus weight
- scrunch
scrunch
32,186 corpus weight
- scull
scull
32,185 corpus weight
- secretes
secretes
32,184 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “scornful” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | scornful |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈskɔɹnfəl/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #67,814 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “scornful” in English
Rare enough to double-check
scornful is uncommon English at frequency #67,814 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈskɔɹnfəl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Showing scorn or disrespect; contemptuous; scathing; withering.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for scornful in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English scornful; equivalent to scorn + -ful. The correct English form is scornful, spelled S-C-O-R-N-F-U-L.
Definition
- 1Showing scorn or disrespect; contemptuous; scathing; withering.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how scornful appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Bleſſed is that man that hath not walked in the counſaile of the vngodly: nor ſtand in the waye of ſynners, and hath not ſit in the ſeate of ſkornefull.
Fie, fie, vnknit that thretaning vnkinde brovv, / And dart not ſcornefull glances from thoſe eies, / To vvound thy Lord, thy King, thy Gouernour.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English scornful; equivalent to scorn + -ful.
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "scornful", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).