arbitrate
/ˈɑːbɪtɹeɪt/
"arbitrate" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“arbitrate” is uncommon English (frequency #61,965 among 35,202 “A” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #61,965
- frequency rank, English
- 35,202
- “A” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To make a judgment (on a dispute) as an arbitrator or arbiter
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | arbitrate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈɑːbɪtɹeɪt/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #61,965 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “arbitrate” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
arbitrate is uncommon English at frequency #61,965 among 35,202 “A” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /ˈɑːbɪtɹeɪt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
arbitrate doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin arbitratus, past participle of arbitrari (“to be a witness, act as umpire”), from arbiter (“umpire”); see arbiter. The correct English form is arbitrate, spelled A-R-B-I-T-R-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1To make a judgment (on a dispute) as an arbitrator or arbiter
- 2To submit (a dispute) to such judgment
- 3To assign an arbitrary value to, or otherwise determine arbitrarily.
Etymology
From Latin arbitratus, past participle of arbitrari (“to be a witness, act as umpire”), from arbiter (“umpire”); see arbiter.
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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Using “arbitrate”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-R-B-I-T-R-A-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɑːbɪtɹeɪt/ (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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.