workaday
/ˈwɜːkədeɪ/
"workaday" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“workaday” is uncommon English (frequency #92,256 among 1,759 “W” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #92,256
- frequency rank, English
- 1,759
- “W” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Suitable for everyday use.
Corpus desk
Index EN-workaday · workaday · English
workaday · rank #92,256 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #92,256
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,759
- PHOTO-FINISH wordlessly
Nearest frequency peer: wordlessly (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “workaday”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- wisecracking
wisecracking
7,751 corpus weight
- wordlessly
wordlessly
7,746 corpus weight
- workaday
workaday
7,745 corpus weight
- wormy
wormy
7,744 corpus weight
- Wurlitzer
Wurlitzer
7,742 corpus weight
- XSS
XSS
7,736 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “workaday” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | workaday |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈwɜːkədeɪ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #92,256 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “workaday” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
workaday is uncommon English at frequency #92,256 among 1,759 “W” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈwɜːkədeɪ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for workaday in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: Middle English werkedei, from Old Norse virkr dagr (“working day”). Cognate to later workday; see work and day. Used in adjective sense from 16th century. By surface analysis, work + -a- + day. First attested in c. 1200. The correct English form is workaday, spelled W-O-R-K-A-D-A-Y.
Definition
- 1Suitable for everyday use.
- 2Mundane or commonplace.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how workaday appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
A retreat, my dear boys, signifies a withdrawal for a while from the cares of our life, the cares of this workaday world, in order to examine the state of our conscience, to reflect on the mysteries of holy religion and to understand better why we are here in this world."
But then something started to shift—the Burning Man aesthetic was creeping into the workaday world; festival culture went mainstream.
Etymology
Middle English werkedei, from Old Norse virkr dagr (“working day”). Cognate to later workday; see work and day. Used in adjective sense from 16th century. By surface analysis, work + -a- + day. First attested in c. 1200.
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 "workaday", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
You've looked up "workaday". Here's where to go from here.
- Usage frequency rank #92,256 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "W" letter cohort. W–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.