scruffy
/ˈskɹʌf.i/adjective, noun
scruffy is spelled S-C-R-U-F-F-Y: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,912th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Scruffy, the name). As an adjective, scruffy means “Untidy in appearance; scrubby; shabby” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in scruffy?
| Letters | 7: S-C-R-U-F-F-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 34,912th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is scruffy?
Scruffy appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,912th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Scruffy, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce scruffy?
- US /ˈskɹʌf.i/
- Australia /ˈskɹaf.i/
Scruffy has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-scruffy.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of scruffy
- scruffier comparative
- scruffiest superlative
- scruffies plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does scruffy mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Untidy in appearance; scrubby; shabby.
A scruffy little dog came scampering down the road.
- 2
Scurfy.
noun
- 1
informalAn artificial intelligence researcher who believes that intelligence is too complicated (or computationally intractable) to be solved with the sorts of homogeneous system favoured by the "neats".
- 2
slangAn arctic fox.
For quotations using this term, see Citations:scruffy.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Scruffy in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense untidy in appearance:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | débraillé, négligé |
| German | verwahrlost, heruntergekommen, verdreckt, versifft |
| Portuguese | desgrenhado |
| Spanish | desaliñado, zarrapastroso, zarapastroso, zalapastroso |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does scruffy come from?
From scruff + -y.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).