smeary
/ˈsmɪəɹi/
"smeary" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“smeary” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Having or showing smears.
Corpus desk
Index EN-smeary · smeary · English
smeary · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | smeary |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈsmɪəɹi/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “smeary” in English
Rare enough to double-check
smeary is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈsmɪəɹi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for smeary in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English *smery, *smeri, from Old English smeoruwiġ (“fatty, greasy, unctious, smeary”), from Proto-West Germanic *smerwig, equivalent to smear + -y. The correct English form is smeary, spelled S-M-E-A-R-Y.
Definition
- 1Having or showing smears.
- 2Tending to smear or soil.
- 3Having a consistency like grease; covered with such a substance.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how smeary appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Pretending to read a smeary newspaper long out of date, which had nothing half so legible in its local news, as the foreign matter of coffee, pickles, fish sauces, gravy, melted butter, and wine, with which it was sprinkled all over, as if it had taken the measles in a highly irregular form, I sat at my table […]
I voice the weary, smeary ones of earth, The helots of the sea and of the soil.
Etymology
From Middle English *smery, *smeri, from Old English smeoruwiġ (“fatty, greasy, unctious, smeary”), from Proto-West Germanic *smerwig, equivalent to smear + -y.
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.