defeatism
/dɪˈfiːtɪzəm/
"defeatism" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“defeatism” is uncommon English (frequency #80,371 among 26,416 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #80,371
- frequency rank, English
- 26,416
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Acceptance of defeat without struggle.
| 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) |
Where “defeatism” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
defeatism is uncommon English at frequency #80,371 among 26,416 “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.
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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Using “defeatism”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-E-F-E-A-T-I-S-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /dɪˈfiːtɪzəm/ (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.