tardiness

noun

"tardiness" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“tardiness” is uncommon English (frequency #57,757 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#57,757
frequency rank, English
3,151
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The state or quality of being tardy.

Corpus desk

Index EN-tardiness · tardiness · English

tardiness · rank #57,757 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #57,757
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,151
  • PHOTO-FINISH tamoxifen

Nearest frequency peer: tamoxifen (-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 “tardiness”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for tardiness
PropertyValue
Headwordtardiness
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Frequency rank#57,757
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “tardiness” in English

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).tardinessfalls in this rarity band:

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

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “tamoxifen” (#57,756), “tarry” (#57,758), “Talmudic” (#57,755). Among 3,151 “T” headwords, “tardiness” is #57,757. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

tardiness is uncommon English at frequency #57,757 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for tardiness in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From tardy + -ness. The correct English form is tardiness, spelled T-A-R-D-I-N-E-S-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    The state or quality of being tardy.
  2. 2
    The result or product of being tardy.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Some ten years ago, an evening excursion train from the Walsall area to Manchester, when travelling well over the heavily-graded Walsall-Rugeley line, was brought to a stand at a level crossing at Hednesford by the tardiness of a gatekeeper, who was pottering about in his garden instead of attending to his duties.

Etymology

From tardy + -ness.

Synonyms

Antonyms

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); 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 "tardiness"?
"tardiness" is spelled T-A-R-D-I-N-E-S-S.
What does "tardiness" mean?
As a noun, "tardiness" means: The state or quality of being tardy.
What is the origin of the word "tardiness"?
From tardy + -ness. 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 "tardiness", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list