swarthy
/ˈswɔɹði/
"swarthy" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“swarthy” is uncommon English (frequency #78,174 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #78,174
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Tawny, dusky, dark.
Corpus desk
Index EN-swarthy · swarthy · English
swarthy · rank #78,174 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #78,174
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH Swati
Nearest frequency peer: Swati (+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 “swarthy”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- sunglass
sunglass
21,832 corpus weight
- supersymmet…
supersymmetry
21,831 corpus weight
- suspender
suspender
21,830 corpus weight
- swarthy
swarthy
21,827 corpus weight
- Swati
Swati
21,826 corpus weight
- switchback
switchback
21,824 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “swarthy” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | swarthy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈswɔɹði/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #78,174 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “swarthy” in English
Rare enough to double-check
swarthy is uncommon English at frequency #78,174 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈswɔɹði/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 6 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for swarthy in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: Alteration of obsolete swarty, from swart + -y, from Old English sweart (“black”). The correct English form is swarthy, spelled S-W-A-R-T-H-Y.
Definition
- 1Tawny, dusky, dark.
- 2Dark-skinned; black.
- 3Darker-skinned than white, but lighter-skinned than tawny; tan.
- 4A dark grey color.
- 5Evil, malicious.
- 6Weathered, rough.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how swarthy appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Their swarthy Hosts wou'd darken all our Plains, / Doubling the native Horror of the War, / And making Death more grim.
the Number of purely white People in the World is proportionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawny. America (exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with…
Etymology
Alteration of obsolete swarty, from swart + -y, from Old English sweart (“black”).
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "swarthy", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).