defeatist
/dɪˈfiːtɪst/
"defeatist" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“defeatist” is uncommon English (frequency #60,006 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #60,006
- frequency rank, English
- 3,470
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of or relating to defeatism.
Corpus desk
Index EN-defeatist · defeatist · English
defeatist · rank #60,006 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #60,006
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,470
- PHOTO-FINISH deets
Nearest frequency peer: deets (-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 “defeatist”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Darnley
Darnley
39,999 corpus weight
- daylights
daylights
39,998 corpus weight
- deets
deets
39,996 corpus weight
- defeatist
defeatist
39,995 corpus weight
- definable
definable
39,994 corpus weight
- delph
delph
39,993 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “defeatist” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | defeatist |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /dɪˈfiːtɪst/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #60,006 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “defeatist” in English
Rare enough to double-check
defeatist is uncommon English at frequency #60,006 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /dɪˈfiːtɪst/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Of or relating to defeatism.".
defeatist has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From defeat + -ist, after French défaitiste. The correct English form is defeatist, spelled D-E-F-E-A-T-I-S-T.
Definition
- 1Of or relating to defeatism.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how defeatist appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
You may look ruefully at your poor red hands and think that just because they have got that way through the extra work you are doing there’s just nothing that can be done about it. Of course, this is a deafeatist attitude—and a lazy one too!
Etymology
From defeat + -ist, after French défaitiste.
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 "defeatist", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).