commissary
/ˈkɒm.ɪ.s(ə)ɹi/
"commissary" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“commissary” has 12 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #36,496. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #36,496
- frequency rank, English
- 43,570
- “C” headwords
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A store primarily serving persons in an institution, most often soldiers or prisoners.
Corpus desk
Index EN-commissary · commissary · English
commissary · rank #36,496 · 12 variants · 1 confusable
- FREQ-MID #36,496
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
- VAR-MID 12 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 43,570
- PHOTO-FINISH comforter
Nearest frequency peer: comforter (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “commissary”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Comanche
Comanche
63,508 corpus weight
- comatose
comatose
63,507 corpus weight
- comforter
comforter
63,506 corpus weight
- commissary
commissary
63,505 corpus weight
- conclave
conclave
63,503 corpus weight
- concoction
concoction
63,502 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “commissary” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | commissary |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkɒm.ɪ.s(ə)ɹi/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #36,496 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “commissary” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 12 spelling variants around commissary (IPA /ˈkɒm.ɪ.s(ə)ɹi/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #36,496 among 43,570 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 8 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for commissary, with forms such as "ccommissary", "cmomissary", and "comimssary". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "commissar", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Late Latin commissarius, from commissus, past participle of committō (“to commit, entrust to”). Doublet of commissar. The correct English form is commissary, spelled C-O-M-M-I-S-S-A-R-Y.
Definition
- 1A store primarily serving persons in an institution, most often soldiers or prisoners.
- 2An account which a prisoner uses to buy provisions, or the balance of that account.
- 3A cafeteria at a television or movie studio.
- 4One to whom is committed some charge, duty, or office, by a superior power; a commissioner.
- 5An officer of the bishop, who exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction in parts of the diocese at a distance from the residence of the bishop.
- 6An officer who supplies provisions to an army.
- 7The judge in a commissary court.
- 8A higher-ranking police officer.
Etymology
From Late Latin commissarius, from commissus, past participle of committō (“to commit, entrust to”). Doublet of commissar.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ccommissary
- cmomissary
- comimssary
- comissary
- commisary
- commisasry
- commissarry
- commissaryy
- commissayr
- commissray
- commsisary
- ocmmissary
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of commissary - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What does "commissary" mean?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "commissary", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).
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.