superbad

adj

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

The verdict

“superbad” is uncommon English (frequency #79,098 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#79,098
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Very bad.

Corpus desk

Index EN-superbad · superbad · English

superbad · rank #79,098 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #79,098
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH Suomi

Nearest frequency peer: Suomi (-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 “superbad”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “superbad” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for superbad
PropertyValue
Headwordsuperbad
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters8
Frequency rank#79,098
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “superbad” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).superbadfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Rare peers in the same band: “Suomi” (#79,097), “superficiality” (#79,100), “suggestively” (#79,094). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “superbad” is #79,098. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

superbad is uncommon English at frequency #79,098 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for superbad, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From super- + bad. The correct English form is superbad, spelled S-U-P-E-R-B-A-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    Very bad.
  2. 2
    Fine, excellent.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Whose^([sic]) gonna remember a black man unless he was a superstar athlete or a superbad criminal? Black men in America die like flies everyday,^([sic]) and no one cares. Hell, I doubt that I will live to 21.
  2. Brian became my little brother; he was a superbad bluesman.

Etymology

From super- + bad.

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

How do you spell "superbad"?
"superbad" is spelled S-U-P-E-R-B-A-D.
What does "superbad" mean?
As an adjective, "superbad" means: Very bad.
What is the origin of the word "superbad"?
From super- + bad. 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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "superbad", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list