uncleanly
/ʌnˈklɛnli/
"uncleanly" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“uncleanly” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Dirty, unhygienic, not clean.
Corpus desk
Index EN-uncleanly · uncleanly · English
uncleanly · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "U" 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 | uncleanly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ʌnˈklɛnli/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “uncleanly” in English
Rare enough to double-check
uncleanly is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ʌnˈklɛnli/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for uncleanly 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, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English unclenlī, onclenlich, from Old English unclǣnlīc, equivalent to un- + cleanly. The correct English form is uncleanly, spelled U-N-C-L-E-A-N-L-Y.
Definition
- 1Dirty, unhygienic, not clean.
- 2Not pure in a moral or religious sense.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how uncleanly appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Prosodemic typhoid from its nature may be disseminated in innumerable ways, but is more frequently found in slum districts, where the habits of the people are uncleanly, or in districts where there is no adequate sewerage.
Etymology
From Middle English unclenlī, onclenlich, from Old English unclǣnlīc, equivalent to un- + cleanly.
Synonyms
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.