birth control
"birth-control" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“birth control” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Voluntary control of the number of children conceived, especially by the planned use of contraception.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | birth control |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “birth control” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
birth control is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for birth control in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Margaret Sanger coined the term "birth control" in 1914, using it in the July 1914 issue of The Woman Rebel, and was criminally indicted for it in August 1914, under the Comstock Law for obscenity in print. The correct English form is birth control, spelled B-I-R-T-H- -C-O-N-T-R-O-L.
Definition
- 1Voluntary control of the number of children conceived, especially by the planned use of contraception.
- 2Any technique used to prevent the birth of a child (such as abortion or preventing conception).
Etymology
Margaret Sanger coined the term "birth control" in 1914, using it in the July 1914 issue of The Woman Rebel, and was criminally indicted for it in August 1914, under the Comstock Law for obscenity in print.
Synonyms
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “birth control”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-I-R-T-H- -C-O-N-T-R-O-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.