administrivia

noun

"administrivia" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“administrivia” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Administrative details that which take a significant amount of time to complete.

Corpus desk

Index EN-administrivia · administrivia · English

administrivia · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "A" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for administrivia
PropertyValue
Headwordadministrivia
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “administrivia” in English

administriviasits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

administrivia is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Administrative details that which take a significant amount of time to complete.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for administrivia, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Etymologically, the entry records: Blend of administrative + trivia. First use appears c. 1937 in International Journal of Ethics. The correct English form is administrivia, spelled A-D-M-I-N-I-S-T-R-I-V-I-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Administrative details that which take a significant amount of time to complete.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how administrivia appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Administrivia take up two hours of every day.
  2. Administrivia takes up two hours of every day.

Etymology

Blend of administrative + trivia. First use appears c. 1937 in International Journal of Ethics.

Synonyms

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "administrivia"?
"administrivia" is spelled A-D-M-I-N-I-S-T-R-I-V-I-A.
What does "administrivia" mean?
As a noun, "administrivia" means: Administrative details that which take a significant amount of time to complete.
What is the origin of the word "administrivia"?
Blend of administrative + trivia. First use appears c. 1937 in International Journal of Ethics. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list