up to scratch
"up-to-scratch" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“up to scratch” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - sufficient; adequate; of acceptable or satisfactory quality
Corpus desk
Index EN-up-to-scratch · up to scratch · English
up to scratch · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "U" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | up to scratch |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “up to scratch” in English
Rare enough to double-check
up to scratch is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "sufficient; adequate; of acceptable or satisfactory quality".
No misspelling variants are generated for up to scratch in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From scratch in the sense of a starting line, as in boxing. The correct English form is up to scratch, spelled U-P- -T-O- -S-C-R-A-T-C-H.
Definition
- 1sufficient; adequate; of acceptable or satisfactory quality
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how up to scratch appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
They decided that his performance was not up to scratch.
But the new trains form just one part of Metro Flow. It's no good having new trains if the network itself isn't up to scratch.
Etymology
From scratch in the sense of a starting line, as in boxing.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.