waterless
/ˈwɔːtə(ɹ)ləs/
"waterless" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“waterless” is uncommon English (frequency #77,332 among 1,759 “W” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #77,332
- frequency rank, English
- 1,759
- “W” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Dry, arid, lacking water.
Corpus desk
Index EN-waterless · waterless · English
waterless · rank #77,332 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #77,332
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,759
- PHOTO-FINISH waylaid
Nearest frequency peer: waylaid (+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 “waterless”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- virion
virion
22,676 corpus weight
- waterless
waterless
22,669 corpus weight
- waylaid
waylaid
22,668 corpus weight
- weal
weal
22,667 corpus weight
- Wedderburn
Wedderburn
22,664 corpus weight
- Weidenfeld
Weidenfeld
22,662 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “waterless” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| 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) |
Long-tail rank of “waterless” in English
Rare enough to double-check
waterless is uncommon English at frequency #77,332 among 1,759 “W” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈwɔːtə(ɹ)ləs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how waterless appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The waterless desert can kill in many ways but dehydration is often fastest.
Also the Russian lines over which these locomotives run pass through long stretches of waterless country, where the only alternative to hauling additional water-tank wagons is to conserve the water supply by condensing.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "waterless", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).