uselessly
"uselessly" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“uselessly” is uncommon English (frequency #65,606 among 1,433 “U” headwords), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #65,606
- frequency rank, English
- 1,433
- “U” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - In a useless manner.
Corpus desk
Index EN-uselessly · uselessly · English
uselessly · rank #65,606 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #65,606
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,433
- PHOTO-FINISH unstressed
Nearest frequency peer: unstressed (-4 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.
Long-tail ranks near “uselessly”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- unrecognised
unrecognised
34,402 corpus weight
- unsolvable
unsolvable
34,401 corpus weight
- unspoilt
unspoilt
34,400 corpus weight
- unstressed
unstressed
34,399 corpus weight
- uselessly
uselessly
34,395 corpus weight
- Vespasian
Vespasian
34,389 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “uselessly” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | uselessly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #65,606 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “uselessly” in English
Rare enough to double-check
uselessly is uncommon English at frequency #65,606 among 1,433 “U” headwords, classed as anadverb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for uselessly, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From useless + -ly. The correct English form is uselessly, spelled U-S-E-L-E-S-S-L-Y.
Definition
- 1In a useless manner.
- 2To no useful purpose.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how uselessly appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Mr. Civil, warned and guided by distant axe-whangs, had found them, and had been unsparing in his condemnation of Jim's stupid waste of time in coming an unnecessary mile to chop down a tree uselessly far away.
Etymology
From useless + -ly.
This word in other languages
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 "uselessly", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).