consistory
/kənˈsɪstəɹi/
"consistory" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“consistory” is uncommon English (frequency #64,280 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #64,280
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A solemn assembly or council.
Corpus desk
Index EN-consistory · consistory · English
consistory · rank #64,280 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #64,280
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH compo
Nearest frequency peer: compo (-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 “consistory”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Comintern
Comintern
35,724 corpus weight
- comparabili…
comparability
35,723 corpus weight
- compo
compo
35,722 corpus weight
- consistory
consistory
35,721 corpus weight
- constitutio…
constitutionalism
35,720 corpus weight
- constrict
constrict
35,719 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “consistory” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | consistory |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kənˈsɪstəɹi/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #64,280 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “consistory” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
consistory is uncommon English at frequency #64,280 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /kənˈsɪstəɹi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for consistory in our index, 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 tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English consistorie, from Old Northern French consistorie (“secular tribunal”) (Old French consistoire), and Late Latin consistorium (“waiting room, meeting place of the imperial council”). Meaning "Church council" is from early 14th c… The correct English form is consistory, spelled C-O-N-S-I-S-T-O-R-Y.
Definition
- 1A solemn assembly or council.
- 2The spiritual court of a diocesan bishop held before his chancellor or commissioner in his cathedral church or elsewhere.
- 3An assembly of prelates; a session of the College of Cardinals at Rome.
- 4A church tribunal or governing body, especially of elders in a Reformed church.
- 5A civil court of justice.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how consistory appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
To council summons all his mighty peers, / Within thick clouds and dark tenfold involved, / A gloomy consistory.
1860-1876, Walter Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury In 1551 we find Bertholier excommunicated by the consistory because he would not allow that he had done wrong in asserting that he was as good a man as Calvin
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English consistorie, from Old Northern French consistorie (“secular tribunal”) (Old French consistoire), and Late Latin consistorium (“waiting room, meeting place of the imperial council”). Meaning "Church council" is from early 14th century.
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 "consistory", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
You've looked up "consistory". Here's where to go from here.
- Usage frequency rank #64,280 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
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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.