through and through

adv

"through-and-through" is a 17-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
19
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Completely; entirely; fundamentally.

Corpus desk

Index EN-through-and-through · through and through · English

through and through · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 19 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "T" 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 through and through
PropertyValue
Headwordthrough and through
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdverb
Letters19
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “through and through” in English

through and throughfalls 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

through and through is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Completely; entirely; fundamentally.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for through and through, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is through and through, spelled T-H-R-O-U-G-H- -A-N-D- -T-H-R-O-U-G-H.

Definition

  1. 1
    Completely; entirely; fundamentally.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. He moved from Cincinnati to San Francisco, but he's still a Cincinnati Bengals fan, through and through.
  2. Thus, sitting where I was, I lit my candle once more, and then clambered across that great coffin which, for two hours or more, had been a mid-wall of partition between me and danger. But to get out of the niche was harder than to get in; for now that I had a candle to light me, I saw that the coffin, though sound enough to outer view, was wormed through…

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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "through and through"?
"through and through" is spelled T-H-R-O-U-G-H- -A-N-D- -T-H-R-O-U-G-H.
What does "through and through" mean?
As an adverb, "through and through" means: Completely; entirely; fundamentally.
What language does "through and through" come from?
"through and through" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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