thuggish
/ˈθʌɡɪʃ/
"thuggish" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“thuggish” is uncommon English (frequency #73,714 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #73,714
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Characterized by thuggery; behaving in a violent or intimidating way; appearing to be violent or intimidating.
Corpus desk
Index EN-thuggish · thuggish · English
thuggish · rank #73,714 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #73,714
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH Thuringia
Nearest frequency peer: Thuringia (+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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “thuggish”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- testbed
testbed
26,292 corpus weight
- theists
theists
26,290 corpus weight
- Theravada
Theravada
26,289 corpus weight
- thuggish
thuggish
26,287 corpus weight
- Thuringia
Thuringia
26,286 corpus weight
- Tico
Tico
26,282 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “thuggish” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | thuggish |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈθʌɡɪʃ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #73,714 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “thuggish” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
thuggish is uncommon English at frequency #73,714 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈθʌɡɪʃ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
thuggish has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. 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 thug + -ish. The correct English form is thuggish, spelled T-H-U-G-G-I-S-H.
Definition
- 1Characterized by thuggery; behaving in a violent or intimidating way; appearing to be violent or intimidating.
- 2Resembling or characteristic of the assassins known as thugs or thuggees (often capitalized in this sense).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how thuggish appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Their thuggish manner made continuing negotiations very difficult.
We were Jews—and not only were we not inferior to the goyim who beat us at football, but the chances were that because we could not commit our hearts to victory in such a thuggish game, we were superior!
Etymology
From thug + -ish.
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "thuggish", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
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Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.