contumacious
/ˌkɒn.tjʊˈmeɪ.ʃəs/
"contumacious" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“contumacious” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as an adjective - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Contemptuous of authority; willfully disobedient; rebellious.
| 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) |
Where “contumacious” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for contumacious is 12 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌkɒn.tjʊˈmeɪ.ʃəs/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “contumacious”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-N-T-U-M-A-C-I-O-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌkɒn.tjʊˈmeɪ.ʃəs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.