underscoring
"underscoring" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“underscoring” is uncommon English (frequency #58,433 among 1,433 “U” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #58,433
- frequency rank, English
- 1,433
- “U” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An underline.
Corpus desk
Index EN-underscoring · underscoring · English
underscoring · rank #58,433 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #58,433
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,433
- PHOTO-FINISH ungainly
Nearest frequency peer: ungainly (+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 “underscoring”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- TSR
TSR
41,573 corpus weight
- tweens
tweens
41,572 corpus weight
- unadorned
unadorned
41,570 corpus weight
- underscoring
underscoring
41,568 corpus weight
- ungainly
ungainly
41,567 corpus weight
- uninstalled
uninstalled
41,566 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “underscoring” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | underscoring |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #58,433 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “underscoring” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
underscoring is uncommon English at frequency #58,433 among 1,433 “U” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An underline.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for underscoring, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is underscoring, spelled U-N-D-E-R-S-C-O-R-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1An underline.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how underscoring appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Parkington swung his chair away, keeping the book in his hand and his back to Anthony. “He underscored whole passages,” he said. “I can't abide reading a book with underscorings in it.”
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 "underscoring", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
You've looked up "underscoring". Here's where to go from here.
- Usage frequency rank #58,433 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "U" letter cohort. U–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.