unlikely
/ʌnˈlaɪkli/adjective, adverb, noun
unlikely is spelled U-N-L-I-K-E-L-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is unlikey: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 39 of all searches for the word. Unlikely is an adjective meaning “Not likely; improbable; not to be reasonably expected”.
How many letters and syllables are in unlikely?
| Letters | 8: U-N-L-I-K-E-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 20 times per million words; the 4,224th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, unlikey, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell unlikely?
Unlikely is spelled U-N-L-I-K-E-L-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 39 of the searches for unlikely in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is unlikely?
Unlikely appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,224th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce unlikely?
- /ʌnˈlaɪkli/
Unlikely has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-unlikely.ogg, En-GB-unlikely.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of unlikely
- unlikelier comparative
- more unlikely comparative
- unlikeliest superlative
- most unlikely superlative
- unlikelies plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does unlikely mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Not likely; improbable; not to be reasonably expected.
It is pretty unlikely that you'll win, but I will pray that at least you do well.
- 2
Not holding out a prospect of success; likely to fail; unpromising.
unlikely means
adverb
- 1
In an improbable manner.
noun
- 1
Something or somebody considered unlikely.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Unlikely in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | peu probable, improbable , improbablement |
| German | unwahrscheinlich |
| Portuguese | improvável , improvavelmente |
| Spanish | improbable , improbablemente |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does unlikely come from?
From Middle English unlykely, unlikly, unlykly, unlicli. By surface analysis, un- + likely.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).