certiorari
/ˌsɝʃəˈɹɛəɹaɪ/
"certiorari" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“certiorari” is uncommon English (frequency #55,313 among 43,570 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #55,313
- frequency rank, English
- 43,570
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A grant of the right of an appeal to be heard by an appellate court where that court has discretion to choose which appeals it will hear.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | certiorari |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌsɝʃəˈɹɛəɹaɪ/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #55,313 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “certiorari” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
certiorari is uncommon English at frequency #55,313 among 43,570 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌsɝʃəˈɹɛəɹaɪ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for certiorari, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From the present passive infinitive of Latin certiōrō (“to make certain”), from the words used at the beginning of these writs when they were written in Latin: certiorārī volumus (“[we] wish to be made certain”). The correct English form is certiorari, spelled C-E-R-T-I-O-R-A-R-I.
Definition
- 1A grant of the right of an appeal to be heard by an appellate court where that court has discretion to choose which appeals it will hear.
- 2A grant of review of a government action by a court with discretion to make such a review.
Etymology
From the present passive infinitive of Latin certiōrō (“to make certain”), from the words used at the beginning of these writs when they were written in Latin: certiorārī volumus (“[we] wish to be made certain”).
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 “certiorari”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-E-R-T-I-O-R-A-R-I - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌsɝʃəˈɹɛəɹaɪ/ (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.