Counter-Reformation
"counter-reformation" is a 18-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Counter-Reformation” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 19
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The period of Roman Catholic revival that aimed to combat the Reformation; any of various specific strains of anti-Reformation thought and action.
Corpus desk
Index EN-counter-reformation · Counter-Reformation · English
Counter-Reformation · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 19 letters
- VOW-8 8 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 | Counter-Reformation |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 19 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “Counter-Reformation” in English
Rare enough to double-check
Counter-Reformation is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The period of Roman Catholic revival that aimed to combat the Reformation; any of various specific strains of anti-Reformation thought and action.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for Counter-Reformation, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From counter- + Reformation. The correct English form is Counter-Reformation, spelled C-O-U-N-T-E-R---R-E-F-O-R-M-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1The period of Roman Catholic revival that aimed to combat the Reformation; any of various specific strains of anti-Reformation thought and action.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how Counter-Reformation appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Ranke [Leopold von Ranke] also popularized the term "Counter-Reformation." He initially used this term in the plural (Gegenreformationen, Counter-Reformations). Roman Catholic historians took umbrage because this implied — and frequently stated — the historical and theological priority of the Protestant Reformation to which Catholicism then reacted. "The…
The Counter-Reformation was originally the creation of modern historians. The negative view, adopted by nineteenth-century German, and essentially Protestant, scholars, of those developments in Western Christendom which were opposed to the sixteenth-century Reformation, was characterized by the term ‘anti-Reformation’.
Etymology
From counter- + Reformation.
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.