Worsley
/ˈwɜː(ɹ)zli/
"worsley" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Worsley” is uncommon English (frequency #54,576 among 12,113 “W” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,576
- frequency rank, English
- 12,113
- “W” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A town in the Metropolitan Borough of Salford, Greater Manchester, England (OS grid ref SD9400).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Worsley |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈwɜː(ɹ)zli/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #54,576 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Worsley” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Worsley is uncommon English at frequency #54,576 among 12,113 “W” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed /ˈwɜː(ɹ)zli/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.
Worsley doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From either Old English personal name *Weorc, in the genitive case *Weorces + Proto-Brythonic *koɨd (“a wood”) + lēah (“wood clearing, glade”), or else from the feminine personal name *Worcgȳth, genitive singular *Weorcgȳthe + lēah. Also suggested is deriva… The correct English form is Worsley, spelled W-O-R-S-L-E-Y.
Definition
- 1A town in the Metropolitan Borough of Salford, Greater Manchester, England (OS grid ref SD9400).
- 2A town in the Shire of Collie, Western Australia.
- 3A short river in Western Australia, after which the town is named.
- 4A hamlet in Clear Hills County, northern Alberta, Canada.
- 5A habitational surname from Old English.
Etymology
From either Old English personal name *Weorc, in the genitive case *Weorces + Proto-Brythonic *koɨd (“a wood”) + lēah (“wood clearing, glade”), or else from the feminine personal name *Worcgȳth, genitive singular *Weorcgȳthe + lēah. Also suggested is derivation from Proto-Brythonic *gwor- (“over-, above”) + celli (“grove”), with late Cumbric devoicing being evident in early forms.
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 “Worsley”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-O-R-S-L-E-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈwɜː(ɹ)zli/ (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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.