December
/dɪˈsɛmbə/
"december" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“December” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #901 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #901
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The twelfth and last month of the Gregorian calendar, following November and preceding the January of the following year, containing the southern solstice.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | December |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /dɪˈsɛmbə/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #901 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “December” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for December is 8 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dɪˈsɛmbə/. Corpus data places it at rank #901 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for December, with forms such as "dceember", "ddecember", and "deccember". 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. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥ Proto-Italic *dekəm Latin decem Latin December Latin decemberbor. Old French decembrebor. Middle English December English December From Middle English December, Decembre, from Old French decembre, from Latin decembe… The correct English form is December, spelled D-E-C-E-M-B-E-R.
Definition
- 1The twelfth and last month of the Gregorian calendar, following November and preceding the January of the following year, containing the southern solstice.
- 2A female given name transferred from the month name [in turn from English].
- 3A surname.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥ Proto-Italic *dekəm Latin decem Latin December Latin decemberbor. Old French decembrebor. Middle English December English December From Middle English December, Decembre, from Old French decembre, from Latin december (“tenth month”), from Latin decem (“ten”); + Latin -ber, from -bris, an adjectival suffix; December was the tenth month in the Roman calendar.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: dceember,ddecember,deccember,decebmer,decembber,decemberr,decembre,decemebr,decemmber,decmeber,deecmber,edcember
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of December - 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
How do you spell "December"?
What does "December" mean?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “December”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-E-C-E-M-B-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /dɪˈsɛmbə/ (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
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.