adulteration

noun

"adulteration" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“adulteration” is uncommon English (frequency #78,331 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#78,331
frequency rank, English
3,931
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The process of adulterating.

Corpus desk

Index EN-adulteration · adulteration · English

adulteration · rank #78,331 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #78,331
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,931
  • PHOTO-FINISH Advaita

Nearest frequency peer: Advaita (+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.

Long-tail ranks near “adulteration”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “adulteration” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for adulteration
PropertyValue
Headwordadulteration
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters12
Frequency rank#78,331
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “adulteration” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).adulterationfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Rare peers in the same band: “Advaita” (#78,332), “acyclic” (#78,328), “aggrandizement” (#78,335). Among 3,931 “A” headwords, “adulteration” is #78,331. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

adulteration is uncommon English at frequency #78,331 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

adulteration has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French adulteration and its etymon Latin adulterātĭō. By surface analysis, adulterate + -ion. The correct English form is adulteration, spelled A-D-U-L-T-E-R-A-T-I-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    The process of adulterating.
  2. 2
    The condition of being adulterated.

Etymology

From Middle French adulteration and its etymon Latin adulterātĭō. By surface analysis, adulterate + -ion.

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 "adulteration"?
"adulteration" is spelled A-D-U-L-T-E-R-A-T-I-O-N.
What does "adulteration" mean?
As a noun, "adulteration" means: The process of adulterating.
What is the origin of the word "adulteration"?
From Middle French adulteration and its etymon Latin adulterātĭō. By surface analysis, adulterate + -ion. 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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "adulteration", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list