scoundrelry

noun

"scoundrelry" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
11
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Villainy, evildoing; acts of villainy or evildoing

Corpus desk

Index EN-scoundrelry · scoundrelry · English

scoundrelry · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 11 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 scoundrelry
PropertyValue
Headwordscoundrelry
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters11
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “scoundrelry” in English

scoundrelrysits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

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

Rare enough to double-check

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

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for scoundrelry, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. 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.

Etymologically, the entry records: From scoundrel + -ry; noted in 1859. The correct English form is scoundrelry, spelled S-C-O-U-N-D-R-E-L-R-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    Villainy, evildoing; acts of villainy or evildoing
  2. 2
    Scoundrels in general; a group of scoundrels

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how scoundrelry appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. 1894. Henry Lazarus. The English revolution of the twentieth century: a prospective history. T. F. Unwin. page 253. Such was Jubilee justice — capped by the liberty of any number of Society thieves to rob the poor of their earnings by means of endless quack nostrums and "Building" or other "Society" scoundrelries.
  2. 1999. Dab Rebellato. 1956 and all that: the making of modern British drama. Psychology Press. page 94. The designer Such is the disdain now shown for theatre design in the period before Look Back in Anger, that it is automatic to imagine it as a design era of tyrannical and monstrous scoundrelry.

Etymology

From scoundrel + -ry; noted in 1859.

Synonyms

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 "scoundrelry"?
"scoundrelry" is spelled S-C-O-U-N-D-R-E-L-R-Y.
What does "scoundrelry" mean?
As a noun, "scoundrelry" means: Villainy, evildoing; acts of villainy or evildoing
What is the origin of the word "scoundrelry"?
From scoundrel + -ry; noted in 1859. 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