viciousness

noun

"viciousness" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“viciousness” is uncommon English (frequency #71,207 among 969 “V” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#71,207
frequency rank, English
969
“V” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - the characteristic of being vicious

Corpus desk

Index EN-viciousness · viciousness · English

viciousness · rank #71,207 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #71,207
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 969
  • PHOTO-FINISH vicomte

Nearest frequency peer: vicomte (+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 “viciousness”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “viciousness” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for viciousness
PropertyValue
Headwordviciousness
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters11
Frequency rank#71,207
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “viciousness” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).viciousnessfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “vicomte” (#71,208), “Vosges” (#71,209), “usefull” (#71,199). Among 969 “V” headwords, “viciousness” is #71,207. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

viciousness is uncommon English at frequency #71,207 among 969 “V” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for viciousness, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English viciousnesse; equivalent to vicious + -ness. The correct English form is viciousness, spelled V-I-C-I-O-U-S-N-E-S-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    the characteristic of being vicious
  2. 2
    the desire to cause harm to others; extreme cruelty

Etymology

From Middle English viciousnesse; equivalent to vicious + -ness.

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

How do you spell "viciousness"?
"viciousness" is spelled V-I-C-I-O-U-S-N-E-S-S.
What does "viciousness" mean?
As a noun, "viciousness" means: the characteristic of being vicious
What is the origin of the word "viciousness"?
From Middle English viciousnesse; equivalent to vicious + -ness. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "viciousness", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list