criminalise
"criminalise" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“criminalise” is uncommon English (frequency #93,583 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #93,583
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Non-Oxford British English standard spelling of criminalize.
Corpus desk
Index EN-criminalise · criminalise · English
criminalise · rank #93,583 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #93,583
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH Crispus
Nearest frequency peer: Crispus (+1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “criminalise”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- craik
craik
6,421 corpus weight
- crating
crating
6,420 corpus weight
- criminalise
criminalise
6,418 corpus weight
- Crispus
Crispus
6,417 corpus weight
- crumpling
crumpling
6,416 corpus weight
- cryptology
cryptology
6,415 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “criminalise” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | criminalise |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #93,583 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “criminalise” in English
Rare enough to double-check
criminalise is uncommon English at frequency #93,583 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Non-Oxford British English standard spelling of criminalize.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for criminalise, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From criminal + -ise. The correct English form is criminalise, spelled C-R-I-M-I-N-A-L-I-S-E.
Definition
- 1Non-Oxford British English standard spelling of criminalize.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how criminalise appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
As soon as it was suggested that it was considering the Swedish model – in which men are criminalised for buying sex, but the women working in prostitution are decriminalised – a slew of prominent male columnists started arguing against this infringement on a man's right to purchase a woman's body.
Thailand has dropped legislation to criminalise torture and disappearances after years of working on the bill, the United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday, leaving state employees unaccountable for serious crimes.
Etymology
From criminal + -ise.
Antonyms
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "criminalise", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).