tough luck
"tough-luck" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tough luck” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Bad luck (often an unsympathetic retort to someone who is suffering a misfortune).
Corpus desk
Index EN-tough-luck · tough luck · English
tough luck · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-3 3 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tough luck |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “tough luck” in English
Rare enough to double-check
tough luck is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aninterjection. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Bad luck (often an unsympathetic retort to someone who is suffering a misfortune).".
No generated misspelling entries exist for tough luck in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is tough luck, spelled T-O-U-G-H- -L-U-C-K.
Definition
- 1Bad luck (often an unsympathetic retort to someone who is suffering a misfortune).
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how tough luck appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Your car broke down? Well, tough luck, you're due at work in 15 minutes. Better run.
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.