unholy
/ʌnˈhəʊli/
"unholy" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“unholy” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #26,645. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #26,645
- frequency rank, English
- 23,789
- “U” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Not holy; (by extension) evil, impure, or otherwise perverted.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | unholy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ʌnˈhəʊli/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #26,645 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “unholy” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around unholy (IPA /ʌnˈhəʊli/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #26,645 among 23,789 “U” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for unholy, with forms such as "nuholy", "uhnoly", and "unhholy". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "uphold", "untold", "unruly", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English unholi, unhaliȝ, from Old English unhāliġ, from Proto-Germanic *unhailagaz, equivalent to un- + holy. Cognate with Scots unhaly, Dutch onheilig, German Low German unhillig, German unheilig, Danish uhellig, Swedish ohelig. The correct English form is unholy, spelled U-N-H-O-L-Y.
Definition
- 1Not holy; (by extension) evil, impure, or otherwise perverted.
- 2Dreadful, terrible, excessive, or otherwise atrocious.
Etymology
From Middle English unholi, unhaliȝ, from Old English unhāliġ, from Proto-Germanic *unhailagaz, equivalent to un- + holy. Cognate with Scots unhaly, Dutch onheilig, German Low German unhillig, German unheilig, Danish uhellig, Swedish ohelig.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: nuholy,uhnoly,unhholy,unhloy,unholly,unholyy,unhoyl,unnholy,unohly
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of unholy - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "unholy"?
What does "unholy" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "unholy"?
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Using “unholy”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is U-N-H-O-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ʌnˈhəʊli/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “uphold” - see the side-by-side comparison. unholy vs uphold
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Same frequency band
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.