scraggly
/ˈskɹæɡ(ə)li/
"scraggly" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“scraggly” is uncommon English (frequency #82,760 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #82,760
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Rough, scruffy, or unkempt.
Corpus desk
Index EN-scraggly · scraggly · English
scraggly · rank #82,760 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #82,760
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH Scoutmaster
Nearest frequency peer: Scoutmaster (-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 “scraggly”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Schlafly
Schlafly
17,244 corpus weight
- Schoharie
Schoharie
17,243 corpus weight
- Scoutmaster
Scoutmaster
17,242 corpus weight
- scraggly
scraggly
17,241 corpus weight
- scrotal
scrotal
17,240 corpus weight
- seasickness
seasickness
17,237 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “scraggly” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | scraggly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈskɹæɡ(ə)li/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #82,760 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “scraggly” in English
Rare enough to double-check
scraggly is uncommon English at frequency #82,760 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈskɹæɡ(ə)li/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for scraggly, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: As if from a verb *scraggle (in turn from scrag). Equivalent to scrag + -le + -ly. The correct English form is scraggly, spelled S-C-R-A-G-G-L-Y.
Definition
- 1Rough, scruffy, or unkempt.
- 2Jagged or uneven; scraggy.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how scraggly appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The sunburn of my face, what little of it could be seen through a scraggly growth of beard, had faded to a sickly yellow.
Faintly from the street scraggly children's voices singing a yule song. Miss Tomson going to the window. "Hey come here Mr Smith look at this, isn't that sweet, group of urchins, they're singing."
Etymology
As if from a verb *scraggle (in turn from scrag). Equivalent to scrag + -le + -ly.
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 "scraggly", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).