animism
/ˈænɪmɪzəm/
"animism" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“animism” is uncommon English (frequency #80,188 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #80,188
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A belief that spirits inhabit some or all classes of natural objects or phenomena.
Corpus desk
Index EN-animism · animism · English
animism · rank #80,188 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #80,188
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH angiogram
Nearest frequency peer: angiogram (-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 “animism”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Ananias
Ananias
19,817 corpus weight
- anastomosis
anastomosis
19,816 corpus weight
- angiogram
angiogram
19,814 corpus weight
- animism
animism
19,813 corpus weight
- Ankit
Ankit
19,811 corpus weight
- antihyperte…
antihypertensive
19,810 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “animism” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | animism |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈænɪmɪzəm/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #80,188 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “animism” in English
Rare enough to double-check
animism is uncommon English at frequency #80,188 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈænɪmɪzəm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for animism, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From anima + -ism, from Latin anima (“life", "breath", "soul”). Dated sense from German Animismus, coined c. 1720 by physicist/chemist Georg Ernst Stahl (1660-1734) See anima mundi. The correct English form is animism, spelled A-N-I-M-I-S-M.
Definition
- 1A belief that spirits inhabit some or all classes of natural objects or phenomena.
- 2A belief that an immaterial force animates the universe.
- 3A doctrine that animal life is produced by an immaterial spirit.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how animism appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
"I'm not entirely comfortable with the level of animism you and Hanners display towards that thing."
Etymology
From anima + -ism, from Latin anima (“life", "breath", "soul”). Dated sense from German Animismus, coined c. 1720 by physicist/chemist Georg Ernst Stahl (1660-1734) See anima mundi.
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "animism", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).