adulterated
"adulterated" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“adulterated” is an uncommon English word, ranked #58,494 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #58,494
- frequency rank, English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Intentionally tainted with impurities (usually as motivated by cheapening the production of a food product or enhancing the psychotropic effects of a street drug).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | adulterated |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #58,494 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “adulterated” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for adulterated is 11 letters long, classified as an adjective. Corpus data places it at rank #58,494 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Intentionally tainted with impurities (usually as motivated by cheapening the production of a food product or enhancing the psychotropic effects of a street drug).".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for adulterated, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: The adjectival sense's relation to adultery is the common theme that corruption or pollution has occurred; more at adulterate. By surface analysis, adulterate + -ed. The correct English form is adulterated, spelled A-D-U-L-T-E-R-A-T-E-D.
Definition
- 1Intentionally tainted with impurities (usually as motivated by cheapening the production of a food product or enhancing the psychotropic effects of a street drug).
Etymology
The adjectival sense's relation to adultery is the common theme that corruption or pollution has occurred; more at adulterate. By surface analysis, adulterate + -ed.
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
How do you spell "adulterated"?
What does "adulterated" mean?
What is the origin of the word "adulterated"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “adulterated”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-D-U-L-T-E-R-A-T-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.