cargo cult
Detailed reference entry for the English word "cargo-cult", 10-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "cargo-cult" 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 "cargo-cult" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
The verdict
“cargo cult” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of several religious movements among the people of Melanesia that anticipate the arrival of material cargo or cultural restoration, typically through the ritual imitation of the activities of c...
Compare similar words
See how cargo cult compares against similar English words.
Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cargo cult |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cargo cult” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cargo cult is 10 letters long, classified as a noun. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for cargo cult in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. 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 cargo (“Western material goods”) + cult. First used in print by N. M. Bird in an article in 1945. 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 cargo cult, spelled C-A-R-G-O- -C-U-L-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Any of several religious movements among the people of Melanesia that anticipate the arrival of material cargo or cultural restoration, typically through the ritual imitation of the activities of colonial or technological cultures.
- 2Any of several philosophies, practices or pseudosciences that are not rooted in experiment, often characterized by an unreflected and ritualistic approach.
Etymology
From cargo (“Western material goods”) + cult. First used in print by N. M. Bird in an article in 1945.
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.
Cite this page
Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:
PlainSpell, “cargo cult, English word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/en/word/cargo-cult
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Using “cargo cult”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-A-R-G-O- -C-U-L-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: