counterintelligence
"counterintelligence" is a 19-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“counterintelligence” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #44,712 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #44,712
- frequency rank, English
- 19
- letters
- 28
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - counterespionage
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | counterintelligence |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 19 |
| Frequency rank | #44,712 |
| Misspellings tracked | 28 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “counterintelligence” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for counterintelligence is 19 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #44,712 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "counterespionage".
Our generated misspelling index lists 28 likely wrong-spelling variants for counterintelligence, with forms such as "ccounterintelligence", "conuterintelligence", and "counetrintelligence". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From counter- + intelligence. The correct English form is counterintelligence, spelled C-O-U-N-T-E-R-I-N-T-E-L-L-I-G-E-N-C-E.
Definition
- 1counterespionage
Etymology
From counter- + intelligence.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccounterintelligence,conuterintelligence,counetrintelligence,counnterintelligence,counteirntelligence,counterinetlligence,counterinntelligence,counterinteligence,counterintelilgence,counterintellgience,counterintelliegnce,counterintelligance,counterintelligecne,counterintelligencce,counterintelligenec,counterintelligennce,counterintelliggence,counterintellignece,counterintleligence,counterinttelligence,counteritnelligence,counternitelligence,counterrintelligence,countreintelligence,countterintelligence,coutnerintelligence,cuonterintelligence,ocunterintelligence
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of counterintelligence - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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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Using “counterintelligence”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-U-N-T-E-R-I-N-T-E-L-L-I-G-E-N-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.