defeatism
/dɪˈfiːtɪzəm/
"defeatism" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“defeatism” is uncommon English (frequency #80,371 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #80,371
- frequency rank, English
- 3,470
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Acceptance of defeat without struggle.
Corpus desk
Index EN-defeatism · defeatism · English
defeatism · rank #80,371 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #80,371
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,470
- PHOTO-FINISH Debora
Nearest frequency peer: Debora (-2 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 “defeatism”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- deary
deary
19,634 corpus weight
- Deboer
Deboer
19,633 corpus weight
- Debora
Debora
19,632 corpus weight
- defeatism
defeatism
19,630 corpus weight
- demain
demain
19,627 corpus weight
- demoralising
demoralising
19,626 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “defeatism” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | defeatism |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /dɪˈfiːtɪzəm/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #80,371 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “defeatism” in English
Rare enough to double-check
defeatism is uncommon English at frequency #80,371 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /dɪˈfiːtɪzəm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Acceptance of defeat without struggle.".
No misspelling variants are generated for defeatism in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From defeat + -ism, after French défaitisme, coined in 1915 by Russian writer Grigorij Aleksinskij as a translation of Russian пораже́нчество (poražénčestvo), also coined by him as a derivation of порази́ть (porazítʹ, “to strike, defeat”). The correct English form is defeatism, spelled D-E-F-E-A-T-I-S-M.
Definition
- 1Acceptance of defeat without struggle.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how defeatism appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Objective assessment is good, but defeatism will reduce our potentials even when the prospects for victory have never been nearer.
Etymology
From defeat + -ism, after French défaitisme, coined in 1915 by Russian writer Grigorij Aleksinskij as a translation of Russian пораже́нчество (poražénčestvo), also coined by him as a derivation of порази́ть (porazítʹ, “to strike, defeat”).
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); 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 "defeatism", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).