countervailing
/ˌkaʊntəˈveɪlɪŋ/
"countervailing" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“countervailing” is uncommon English (frequency #74,852 among 43,570 “C” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #74,852
- frequency rank, English
- 43,570
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Compensating with equal force.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | countervailing |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˌkaʊntəˈveɪlɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 14 |
| Frequency rank | #74,852 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “countervailing” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
countervailing is uncommon English at frequency #74,852 among 43,570 “C” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˌkaʊntəˈveɪlɪŋ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Compensating with equal force.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for countervailing in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is countervailing, spelled C-O-U-N-T-E-R-V-A-I-L-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1Compensating with equal force.
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
How do you spell "countervailing"?
What does "countervailing" mean?
How do you pronounce "countervailing"?
What language does "countervailing" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “countervailing”
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-V-A-I-L-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌkaʊntəˈveɪlɪŋ/ (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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.