worthless
/ˈwɝθləs/
"worthless" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“worthless” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,424 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #9,424
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Having no worth or use; without value.
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 | worthless |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈwɝθləs/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #9,424 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “worthless” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for worthless is 9 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈwɝθləs/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,424 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Having no worth or use; without value.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for worthless, with forms such as "owrthless", "worhtless", and "worrthless". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "wordless", "worthiness", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English *worthles, from Old English weorþlēas (“worthless”), equivalent to worth + -less. Cognate with Dutch waardeloos (“worthless”), German wertlos (“worthless”), Swedish värdelös (“worthless”). The correct English form is worthless, spelled W-O-R-T-H-L-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1Having no worth or use; without value.
Etymology
From Middle English *worthles, from Old English weorþlēas (“worthless”), equivalent to worth + -less. Cognate with Dutch waardeloos (“worthless”), German wertlos (“worthless”), Swedish värdelös (“worthless”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: owrthless,worhtless,worrthless,worthelss,worthhless,worthles,worthlless,worthlses,wortlhess,wortthless,wotrhless,wrothless,wworthless
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of worthless - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “worthless”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-O-R-T-H-L-E-S-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈwɝθləs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “wordless” - see the side-by-side comparison. worthless vs wordless
- 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.