anti-semitism
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Detailed reference entry for the English word "anti-semitism", 13-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "anti-semitism" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "anti-semitism" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
The verdict
“anti-Semitism” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun — the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
Dominant Wiktionary sense: Prejudice, discrimination, hostility or political or religious opposition directed against ethnic or religious Jews or against Judaism; antijudaism; judeophobia.
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See how anti-Semitism compares against similar English words.
Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | anti-Semitism |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌæntɪˈsɛmɪˌtɪzəm/ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “anti-Semitism” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for anti-Semitism is 13 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌæntɪˈsɛmɪˌtɪzəm/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for anti-Semitism in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From German Antisemitismus. It is typically said that German political agitator Wilhelm Marr invented the term to replace Judenhaß (literally “Jew-hatred”) to make hatred of the Jews seem rational and sanctioned by scientific knowledge; Marr founded the Ant… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is anti-Semitism, spelled A-N-T-I---S-E-M-I-T-I-S-M, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Prejudice, discrimination, hostility or political or religious opposition directed against ethnic or religious Jews or against Judaism; antijudaism; judeophobia.
- 2Prejudice, discrimination or hostility directed against any Semitic people (ancient or modern), such as Samaritans, Palestinians, Arabs or Assyrians.
Etymology
From German Antisemitismus. It is typically said that German political agitator Wilhelm Marr invented the term to replace Judenhaß (literally “Jew-hatred”) to make hatred of the Jews seem rational and sanctioned by scientific knowledge; Marr founded the Antisemitenliga ("Anti-Semites' League") in 1879, used the terms Semitismus and Antisemiten in his 1879 and 1880 pamphlets Der Sieg des Judenthums über das Germanenthum and Der Weg zum Siege des Germanenthums über das Judenthum, and used Antisemitismus at least as early as his 1885 pamphlet Lessing contra Sem. The related term antisemitisch (“anti-semitic”) was first used in 1860, by Jewish scholar Moritz Steinschneider. See Wikipedia's article on the etymology and usage of the term. The term is superficially/synchronically equivalent to anti- + Semitism (see Semite), for which reason it is rarely extended to cover prejudice against any Semitic people, or against adherents of any of the religions that originated among the Semitic peoples (the Abrahamic religions). See the usage notes.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “anti-Semitism”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-N-T-I---S-E-M-I-T-I-S-M — every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌæntɪˈsɛmɪˌtɪzəm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter A in our English index: