weakly
/ˈwiːkli/
"weakly" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“weakly” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #23,432 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #23,432
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Frail, sickly or of a delicate constitution; weak.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | weakly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈwiːkli/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #23,432 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “weakly” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for weakly is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈwiːkli/. Corpus data places it at rank #23,432 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Frail, sickly or of a delicate constitution; weak.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for weakly, with forms such as "ewakly", "waekly", and "weakkly". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "weary", "weekly", "weak", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old English wāclīċe (“weakly”), equivalent to weak + -ly (adjectival suffix); compare Old English wāclīċ (“weak; ignoble; mean”), and Old Norse veikligr (“weakly; sick”); both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *waikalīkaz (“weakly; weak”). The correct English form is weakly, spelled W-E-A-K-L-Y.
Definition
- 1Frail, sickly or of a delicate constitution; weak.
Etymology
From Old English wāclīċe (“weakly”), equivalent to weak + -ly (adjectival suffix); compare Old English wāclīċ (“weak; ignoble; mean”), and Old Norse veikligr (“weakly; sick”); both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *waikalīkaz (“weakly; weak”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ewakly,waekly,weakkly,weaklly,weaklyy,weakyl,wealky,wekaly,wweakly
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of weakly - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “weakly”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-E-A-K-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈwiːkli/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “weary” - see the side-by-side comparison. weakly vs weary
- 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.