confederate
/kənˈfɛdəɹət/
"confederate" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“confederate” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #11,185 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #11,185
- frequency rank, English
- 11
- letters
- 16
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of, relating to, or united in a confederacy
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 | confederate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /kənˈfɛdəɹət/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #11,185 |
| Misspellings tracked | 16 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “confederate” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for confederate is 11 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kənˈfɛdəɹət/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,185 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.
Our generated misspelling index lists 16 likely wrong-spelling variants for confederate, with forms such as "cconfederate", "cnofederate", and "cofnederate". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "considerate", "confederacy", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: First attested in 1387, in Middle english; inherited from Middle English confederat(e) (“confederated, allied, associated in a plot; united or bound, as in friendship or troth”), borrowed from Late Latin cōnfoederātus perfect passive participle of cōnfoeder… The correct English form is confederate, spelled C-O-N-F-E-D-E-R-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1Of, relating to, or united in a confederacy
- 2Banded together; allied.
- 3Confederated.
Etymology
First attested in 1387, in Middle english; inherited from Middle English confederat(e) (“confederated, allied, associated in a plot; united or bound, as in friendship or troth”), borrowed from Late Latin cōnfoederātus perfect passive participle of cōnfoederō, see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (noun-forming suffix). Regular participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English. By surface analysis, con- + federate.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cconfederate,cnofederate,cofnederate,conefderate,confdeerate,confedderate,confedearte,confederaet,confederatte,confederrate,confedertae,confedreate,confeedrate,conffederate,connfederate,ocnfederate
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of confederate - 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "confederate"?
What does "confederate" mean?
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Using “confederate”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-N-F-E-D-E-R-A-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kənˈfɛdəɹət/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “considerate” - see the side-by-side comparison. confederate vs considerate
- 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.