vexatious
/vɛkˈseɪʃəs/
"vexatious" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“vexatious” is uncommon English (frequency #69,564 among 969 “V” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #69,564
- frequency rank, English
- 969
- “V” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Causing vexation or annoyance; teasing; troublesome.
Corpus desk
Index EN-vexatious · vexatious · English
vexatious · rank #69,564 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #69,564
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 969
- PHOTO-FINISH Vetter
Nearest frequency peer: Vetter (-1 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 “vexatious”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Venable
Venable
30,440 corpus weight
- Vetter
Vetter
30,438 corpus weight
- vexatious
vexatious
30,437 corpus weight
- vivacity
vivacity
30,432 corpus weight
- waggoner
waggoner
30,430 corpus weight
- Wahhabism
Wahhabism
30,429 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “vexatious” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | vexatious |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /vɛkˈseɪʃəs/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #69,564 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “vexatious” in English
Rare enough to double-check
vexatious is uncommon English at frequency #69,564 among 969 “V” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /vɛkˈseɪʃəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for vexatious, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: a 1650 vexation + -ous The correct English form is vexatious, spelled V-E-X-A-T-I-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Causing vexation or annoyance; teasing; troublesome.
- 2Full of trouble or disquiet
- 3Commenced for the purpose of giving trouble, without due cause.
- 4In the habit of starting vexatious litigation and therefore liable to have restraints placed on one's ability to access the courts.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how vexatious appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Although this letter is vexatious, I must not forget that my little entertainment has brought me a visiter in the Marquess of Wentworthdale, on an errand of no small moment, as the Countess of Rotheles may soon learn, to her surprise, for I shall, probably, see him at the Opera to-night.
He leads a vexatious life.
Etymology
a 1650 vexation + -ous
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 "vexatious", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).