waterless
/ˈwɔːtə(ɹ)ləs/
"waterless" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“waterless” is an uncommon English word, ranked #77,332 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #77,332
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Dry, arid, lacking water.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | waterless |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈwɔːtə(ɹ)ləs/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #77,332 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “waterless” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for waterless is 9 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈwɔːtə(ɹ)ləs/. Corpus data places it at rank #77,332 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
waterless has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English waterles, waterlees, from Old English wæterlēas (“waterless”), from Proto-Germanic *watōrlausaz, equivalent to water + -less. Cognate with Saterland Frisian woaterloos (“waterless”), West Frisian wetterleas (“waterless”), Dutch waterloos… The correct English form is waterless, spelled W-A-T-E-R-L-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1Dry, arid, lacking water.
- 2Not requiring water.
Etymology
From Middle English waterles, waterlees, from Old English wæterlēas (“waterless”), from Proto-Germanic *watōrlausaz, equivalent to water + -less. Cognate with Saterland Frisian woaterloos (“waterless”), West Frisian wetterleas (“waterless”), Dutch waterloos (“waterless”), German wasserlos (“waterless”), Swedish vattenlös (“waterless”), Icelandic vatnslaus (“waterless”).
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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Using “waterless”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-A-T-E-R-L-E-S-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈwɔːtə(ɹ)ləs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.