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blasphemy

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

9 characters

Language

English

word origin

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "blasphemy", 9-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "blasphemy" 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 "blasphemy" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

blasphemy is aEnglishnoun. It means: An act of irreverence or contempt toward a god or toward something considered sacred; an impious act, utterance, view, etc. Pronounced /ˈblæs.fə.mi/.

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Key facts for blasphemy
PropertyValue
Headwordblasphemy
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈblæs.fə.mi/
Letters9
Frequency rank#19,533
Misspellings tracked15
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of blasphemy in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for blasphemy is 9 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈblæs.fə.mi/. Corpus data places it at rank #19,533 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 15 documented wrong-spelling variants for blasphemy, with forms such as "balsphemy", "bblasphemy", and "blapshemy". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.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 Middle English blasfemie, from Old French blasfemie, from Ecclesiastical Latin blasphēmia, from Ancient Greek βλασφημία (blasphēmía, “profanity”), from βλασφημέω (blasphēméō, “to slander”). 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 blasphemy, spelled B-L-A-S-P-H-E-M-Y, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    An act of irreverence or contempt toward a god or toward something considered sacred; an impious act, utterance, view, etc.
  2. 2
    An act of irreverence towards anything considered inviolable; the act of disregarding a convention.

Etymology

From Middle English blasfemie, from Old French blasfemie, from Ecclesiastical Latin blasphēmia, from Ancient Greek βλασφημία (blasphēmía, “profanity”), from βλασφημέω (blasphēméō, “to slander”).

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: balsphemy,bblasphemy,blapshemy,blashpemy,blaspehmy,blasphemmy,blasphemyy,blaspheym,blasphhemy,blasphmey,blaspphemy,blassphemy,bllasphemy,blsaphemy,lbasphemy

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for blasphemy

Misspelling Variants of "blasphemy"

balsphemy9bblasphemy10blapshemy9blashpemy9blaspehmy9blasphemmy10blasphemyy10blaspheym9
Misspelling Variants of "blasphemy"

Frequency rank: #19,533 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "blasphemy"?
"blasphemy" is spelled B-L-A-S-P-H-E-M-Y. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈblæs.fə.mi/.
What does "blasphemy" mean?
As a noun, "blasphemy" means: An act of irreverence or contempt toward a god or toward something considered sacred; an impious act, utterance, view, etc.
What are common misspellings of "blasphemy"?
Common misspellings include "balsphemy", "bblasphemy", "blapshemy", "blashpemy", "blaspehmy". The correct spelling is "blasphemy".
How do you pronounce "blasphemy"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "blasphemy" is /ˈblæs.fə.mi/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "blasphemy"?
From Middle English blasfemie, from Old French blasfemie, from Ecclesiastical Latin blasphēmia, from Ancient Greek βλασφημία (blasphēmía, “profanity”), from βλασφημέω (blasphēméō, “to slander”). See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.