benighted
/bɪˈnaɪtɪd/
"benighted" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“benighted” is an uncommon English word, ranked #76,574 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #76,574
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Overtaken by night; especially of a traveller, etc.: caught out by oncoming night before reaching one's destination.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | benighted |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /bɪˈnaɪtɪd/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #76,574 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “benighted” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for benighted is 9 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɪˈnaɪtɪd/. Corpus data places it at rank #76,574 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Zero misspellings are on record for benighted in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From benight + -ed. The correct English form is benighted, spelled B-E-N-I-G-H-T-E-D.
Definition
- 1Overtaken by night; especially of a traveller, etc.: caught out by oncoming night before reaching one's destination.
- 2Plunged into darkness.
- 3Lacking education or knowledge; unenlightened; also, lacking morality; immoral, unscrupulous.
- 4Difficult to understand; abstruse, obscure.
Etymology
From benight + -ed.
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 “benighted”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-E-N-I-G-H-T-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bɪˈnaɪtɪd/ (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
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.