undernourished

adj

"undernourished" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“undernourished” is uncommon English (frequency #67,924 among 1,433 “U” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#67,924
frequency rank, English
1,433
“U” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Provided with insufficient nourishment to sustain proper health and growth.

Corpus desk

Index EN-undernourished · undernourished · English

undernourished · rank #67,924 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #67,924
  • LEN-MEGA 14 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,433
  • PHOTO-FINISH uncoupling

Nearest frequency peer: uncoupling (-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 “undernourished”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for undernourished
PropertyValue
Headwordundernourished
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters14
Frequency rank#67,924
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “undernourished” 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).undernourishedfalls 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: “uncoupling” (#67,923), “unequally” (#67,925), “uncategorized” (#67,922). Among 1,433 “U” headwords, “undernourished” is #67,924. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

undernourished is uncommon English at frequency #67,924 among 1,433 “U” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Provided with insufficient nourishment to sustain proper health and growth.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for undernourished, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: From under- + nourished. The correct English form is undernourished, spelled U-N-D-E-R-N-O-U-R-I-S-H-E-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    Provided with insufficient nourishment to sustain proper health and growth.

Etymology

From under- + nourished.

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 "undernourished"?
"undernourished" is spelled U-N-D-E-R-N-O-U-R-I-S-H-E-D.
What does "undernourished" mean?
As an adjective, "undernourished" means: Provided with insufficient nourishment to sustain proper health and growth.
What is the origin of the word "undernourished"?
From under- + nourished. 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 "undernourished", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 14 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list