cannibalistic
/kan.ɪ.bəˈlɪs.tɪk/
"cannibalistic" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cannibalistic” is uncommon English (frequency #67,294 among 43,570 “C” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #67,294
- frequency rank, English
- 43,570
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Tending toward cannibalism.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cannibalistic |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /kan.ɪ.bəˈlɪs.tɪk/ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Frequency rank | #67,294 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cannibalistic” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
cannibalistic is uncommon English at frequency #67,294 among 43,570 “C” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /kan.ɪ.bəˈlɪs.tɪk/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Tending toward cannibalism.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for cannibalistic, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. 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: Etymology tree Proto-Cariban *kariponader. Spanish caribeder. Spanish caríbalder. Spanish caníbalbor. English cannibal Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íďďō Ancient Greek -ίζω (-ízō) Proto-He… The correct English form is cannibalistic, spelled C-A-N-N-I-B-A-L-I-S-T-I-C.
Definition
- 1Tending toward cannibalism.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Cariban *kariponader. Spanish caribeder. Spanish caríbalder. Spanish caníbalbor. English cannibal Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íďďō Ancient Greek -ίζω (-ízō) Proto-Hellenic *-tās Ancient Greek -τής (-tḗs) Ancient Greek -ιστής (-istḗs)der. Latin -istader. Old French -istebor. Middle English -ist English -ist Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Italic *-kos Latin -cus Latin -icuslbor. Old French -iquebor. Middle English -ik English -ic English -istic English cannibalistic From cannibal + -istic.
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 “cannibalistic”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-A-N-N-I-B-A-L-I-S-T-I-C - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kan.ɪ.bəˈlɪs.tɪk/ (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.