six feet under

adj

"six-feet-under" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“six feet under” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
14
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Buried underground; not alive; dead.

Corpus desk

Index EN-six-feet-under · six feet under · English

six feet under · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 14 letters
  • VOW-5 5 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 six feet under
PropertyValue
Headwordsix feet under
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters14
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “six feet under” in English

six feet undersits 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

six feet under is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Buried underground; not alive; dead.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for six feet under, 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, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: Six feet refers to the traditional depth to which graves are dug. The correct English form is six feet under, spelled S-I-X- -F-E-E-T- -U-N-D-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Buried underground; not alive; dead.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. My grandparents are six feet under.

Etymology

Six feet refers to the traditional depth to which graves are dug.

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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "six feet under"?
"six feet under" is spelled S-I-X- -F-E-E-T- -U-N-D-E-R.
What does "six feet under" mean?
As an adjective, "six feet under" means: Buried underground; not alive; dead.
What is the origin of the word "six feet under"?
Six feet refers to the traditional depth to which graves are dug. 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