congregation
/ˌkɒŋɡɹɪˈɡeɪʃən/
"congregation" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“congregation” has 19 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #9,308. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #9,308
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
- 19
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The act of congregating or collecting together.
Corpus desk
Index EN-congregation · congregation · English
congregation · rank #9,308 · 19 variants · 1 confusable
- FREQ-COMMON #9,308
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
- VAR-HIGH 19 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH confined
Nearest frequency peer: confined (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “congregation”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- compression
compression
90,697 corpus weight
- comprised
comprised
90,696 corpus weight
- confess
confess
90,695 corpus weight
- confined
confined
90,694 corpus weight
- congregation
congregation
90,693 corpus weight
- coordinate
coordinate
90,691 corpus weight
What this shows “congregation” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | congregation |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌkɒŋɡɹɪˈɡeɪʃən/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #9,308 |
| Misspellings tracked | 19 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “congregation”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 19 spelling variants around congregation (IPA /ˌkɒŋɡɹɪˈɡeɪʃən/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #9,308 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 19 likely wrong-spelling variants for congregation, with forms such as "ccongregation", "cnogregation", and "cognregation". 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, "congregational", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English congregacioun, from Old French congregacion, from Latin congregātiō, itself from congregō (“to herd into a flock”). Adopted (1520s) by the English Bible translator William Tyndale, to render the Ancient Greek ἐκκλησία (ekklēsía, “those c… The correct English form is congregation, spelled C-O-N-G-R-E-G-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1The act of congregating or collecting together.
- 2A gathering of faithful in a temple, church, synagogue, mosque or other place of worship. It can also refer to the people who are present at a devotional service in the building, particularly in contrast to the pastor, minister, imam, rabbi etc. and/or choir, who may be seated apart from the general congregation or lead the service (notably in responsory form).
- 3A Roman Congregation, a main department of the Vatican administration of the Catholic Church.
- 4A corporate body whose members gather for worship, or the members of such a body.
- 5Any large gathering of people.
- 6A flock of various birds, such as plovers or eagles.
- 7The main body of university staff, comprising academics, administrative staff, heads of colleges, etc.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how congregation appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The critically low level of rainfall in the second half of 2020 – approaching 50% year on year for November – led the religious affairs directorate to instruct imams and their congregations to pray for rain last month.
In Hebrew, bonai shalom means “builders of peace,” and the congregation welcomes both Jews and non-Jews to participate in all aspects of the community.
Etymology
From Middle English congregacioun, from Old French congregacion, from Latin congregātiō, itself from congregō (“to herd into a flock”). Adopted (1520s) by the English Bible translator William Tyndale, to render the Ancient Greek ἐκκλησία (ekklēsía, “those called together, (popular) meeting”) (hence Latin ecclēsia) in his New Testament, and preferred by 16th century Reformers instead of church. By surface analysis, congregate + -ion.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ccongregation
- cnogregation
- cognregation
- congergation
- conggregation
- congreagtion
- congregaiton
- congregasion
- congregatino
- congregationn
- congregatoin
- congregattion
- congreggation
- congregtaion
- congrgeation
- congrregation
- conngregation
- conrgegation
- ocngregation
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of congregation - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "congregation", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (19 here; floor ≥5).