contumacious
/ˌkɒn.tjʊˈmeɪ.ʃəs/
"contumacious" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“contumacious” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Contemptuous of authority; willfully disobedient; rebellious.
Corpus desk
Index EN-contumacious · contumacious · English
contumacious · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | contumacious |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˌkɒn.tjʊˈmeɪ.ʃəs/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “contumacious” in English
Rare enough to double-check
contumacious is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˌkɒn.tjʊˈmeɪ.ʃəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for contumacious, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin contumāx (“stubborn, obstinate”) + -ious. The correct English form is contumacious, spelled C-O-N-T-U-M-A-C-I-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Contemptuous of authority; willfully disobedient; rebellious.
- 2Willfully disobedient to the summons or orders of a court.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how contumacious appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
[…] and, on his conſtancie, ſounds an accuſation to Herod of a contumacious affront, on ſuch a day, before many peers; præpares the king to ſome paſſion, and at laſt, by her daughter’s dancing, effects it.
In all places too are Dissident Priests; whom the Legislative will have to deal with: contumacious individuals, working on that angriest of passions; plotting, enlisting.
Etymology
From Latin contumāx (“stubborn, obstinate”) + -ious.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.