Castilian
/kəˈstɪljən/
"castilian" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Castilian” is an uncommon English word, ranked #57,926 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #57,926
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The Castilian dialect of Spanish, often (especially historically) considered the prestige dialect of Spanish.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Castilian |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /kəˈstɪljən/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #57,926 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Castilian” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Castilian is 9 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kəˈstɪljən/. Corpus data places it at rank #57,926 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.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for Castilian, 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 usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Castile + -ian as a calque of Spanish castellano (“Of or related to Castile, Spain, or the Spanish language”). Doublet of castellano, castellanus, castellan, and chatelain. The correct English form is Castilian, spelled C-A-S-T-I-L-I-A-N.
Definition
- 1The Castilian dialect of Spanish, often (especially historically) considered the prestige dialect of Spanish.
- 2Synonym of Spanish, the language of Spain and its former colonies.
Etymology
From Castile + -ian as a calque of Spanish castellano (“Of or related to Castile, Spain, or the Spanish language”). Doublet of castellano, castellanus, castellan, and chatelain.
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 “Castilian”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-A-S-T-I-L-I-A-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kəˈstɪljən/ (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.