contumacy
/ˈkɒntjʊməsi/
"contumacy" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“contumacy” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Disobedience, resistance to authority.
Corpus desk
Index EN-contumacy · contumacy · English
contumacy · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 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 | contumacy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkɒntjʊməsi/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “contumacy” in English
Rare enough to double-check
contumacy is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈkɒntjʊməsi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Disobedience, resistance to authority.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for contumacy, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin contumācia, from contumāx (“refusing to appear in a court of law in disobedience of a summons; insolent, obstinate, stiff-necked”). The correct English form is contumacy, spelled C-O-N-T-U-M-A-C-Y.
Definition
- 1Disobedience, resistance to authority.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how contumacy appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
[T]heſe Muſhrome Lords (Spirituall onely in Title, but wholly Temporall in reality), firſt ſprouted up by inſenſible degrees in the Church of Christ; ſo it is moſt infallibly convinced of notorious falſehood, by the multitude of thoſe moſt execrable Treaſons, Treacheries, Conſpiracies, Rebellions, Contumacies, Inſurrections, Seditions, and Anti-Monarchial…
Persons Judicially cited, are ſometimes wont, by a Non-Appearance in Court, to contemn the Judges Authority; and thereby to render themſelves contumacious: wherefore, I will conſider theſe Perſons under the following heads. […] 2dly, Examine how many Species or Kinds of Contumacy there are. […] The Plaintiff on the Return of a Peremptory Citation ought no…
Etymology
From Latin contumācia, from contumāx (“refusing to appear in a court of law in disobedience of a summons; insolent, obstinate, stiff-necked”).
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.