captivate
/ˈkæptɪveɪt/
"captivate" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“captivate” is an uncommon English word, ranked #51,595 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #51,595
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To make (a person, an animal, etc.) a captive; to take prisoner; to capture, to subdue.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | captivate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈkæptɪveɪt/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #51,595 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “captivate” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for captivate is 9 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkæptɪveɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #51,595 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for captivate, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Late Latin captīvātus, the perfect passive participle of captīvō (“to capture”), from Latin captīvus (“captive, prisoner”) (ultimately from capiō (“to capture, seize”), from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to hold; to seize”)) + -ō (suffi… The correct English form is captivate, spelled C-A-P-T-I-V-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1To make (a person, an animal, etc.) a captive; to take prisoner; to capture, to subdue.
- 2To capture or control (the mind, etc.); to subdue, to subjugate.
- 3To attract and hold (someone's) attention and interest; to charm, to entrance, to fascinate, to enchain.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Late Latin captīvātus, the perfect passive participle of captīvō (“to capture”), from Latin captīvus (“captive, prisoner”) (ultimately from capiō (“to capture, seize”), from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to hold; to seize”)) + -ō (suffix forming first-conjugation verbs). Equivalent to captive + -ate (verb-forming suffix).
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 “captivate”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-A-P-T-I-V-A-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkæptɪveɪt/ (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.