spookish

adj

"spookish" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
8
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Frightening or unnerving in the manner of something eerie or supernatural; spooky.

Corpus desk

Index EN-spookish · spookish · English

spookish · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 8 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.

Key facts for spookish
PropertyValue
Headwordspookish
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters8
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “spookish” in English

spookishfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

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

Rare enough to double-check

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

spookish has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From spook + -ish. The correct English form is spookish, spelled S-P-O-O-K-I-S-H.

Definition

  1. 1
    Frightening or unnerving in the manner of something eerie or supernatural; spooky.
  2. 2
    Easily startled, frightened, or unnerved.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. I hope we find some nicer spot than this. This looks so lonely and spookish.
  2. Religion is everywhere a gauge of respectability. . . . The right to participate, however humbly, in His august and transcendental operations offers a powerful satisfaction to the will to power; the same privilege, on a smaller scale, is what takes hordes of human blanks into the Freemasons and other such spookish amalgamations of nonentities.

Etymology

From spook + -ish.

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 "spookish"?
"spookish" is spelled S-P-O-O-K-I-S-H.
What does "spookish" mean?
As an adjective, "spookish" means: Frightening or unnerving in the manner of something eerie or supernatural; spooky.
What is the origin of the word "spookish"?
From spook + -ish. 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