unwittingly
/ʌnˈwɪtɪŋli/
"unwittingly" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“unwittingly” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #26,649 in English word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #26,649
- frequency rank, English
- 11
- letters
- 16
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - In an unwitting manner; inadvertently, obliviously, unintentionally, unknowingly.
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 | unwittingly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | /ʌnˈwɪtɪŋli/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #26,649 |
| Misspellings tracked | 16 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “unwittingly” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for unwittingly is 11 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ʌnˈwɪtɪŋli/. Corpus data places it at rank #26,649 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "In an unwitting manner; inadvertently, obliviously, unintentionally, unknowingly.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 16 likely wrong-spelling variants for unwittingly, with forms such as "nuwittingly", "uniwttingly", and "unnwittingly". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "unwitting", "unwillingly", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English on-wytyngly, un-wetandly, unweteynglye, unwetinglie, un-wetinglye, unwetyngly, unwitandly, unwitendely, unwitingly, unwittandly, unwityngli, unwityngly, unwytyngeleche, unwytyngli, equivalent to unwitting + -ly or un- + wittingly. The correct English form is unwittingly, spelled U-N-W-I-T-T-I-N-G-L-Y.
Definition
- 1In an unwitting manner; inadvertently, obliviously, unintentionally, unknowingly.
Etymology
From Middle English on-wytyngly, un-wetandly, unweteynglye, unwetinglie, un-wetinglye, unwetyngly, unwitandly, unwitendely, unwitingly, unwittandly, unwityngli, unwityngly, unwytyngeleche, unwytyngli, equivalent to unwitting + -ly or un- + wittingly.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: nuwittingly,uniwttingly,unnwittingly,unwitingly,unwititngly,unwittignly,unwittinggly,unwittinglly,unwittinglyy,unwittingyl,unwittinlgy,unwittinngly,unwittnigly,unwtitingly,unwwittingly,uwnittingly
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of unwittingly - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "unwittingly"?
What does "unwittingly" mean?
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Using “unwittingly”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is U-N-W-I-T-T-I-N-G-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ʌnˈwɪtɪŋli/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “unwitting” - see the side-by-side comparison. unwittingly vs unwitting
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.