defendant
/dɪˈfɛnd.ənt/
"defendant" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“defendant” has 14 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #7,333. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #7,333
- frequency rank, English
- 3,470
- “D” headwords
- 14
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Serving, or suitable, for defense; defensive, defending.
Corpus desk
Index EN-defendant · defendant · English
defendant · rank #7,333 · 14 variants · 5 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #7,333
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
- VAR-HIGH 14 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,470
- PHOTO-FINISH dale
Nearest frequency peer: dale (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “defendant”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- crowded
crowded
92,672 corpus weight
- dale
dale
92,670 corpus weight
- defendant
defendant
92,668 corpus weight
- dense
dense
92,666 corpus weight
- desperately
desperately
92,665 corpus weight
- doctrine
doctrine
92,664 corpus weight
What this shows “defendant” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | defendant |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /dɪˈfɛnd.ənt/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #7,333 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “defendant”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 14 spelling variants around defendant (IPA /dɪˈfɛnd.ənt/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #7,333 among 3,470 “D” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Serving, or suitable, for defense; defensive, defending.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for defendant, with forms such as "ddefendant", "deefndant", and "defednant". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "defending", "dependent", "dependant", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English defendaunt (“defending; defending in a suit”), borrowed from Old French defendant, present participle of defendre, from Latin dēfendere. The correct English form is defendant, spelled D-E-F-E-N-D-A-N-T.
Definition
- 1Serving, or suitable, for defense; defensive, defending.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how defendant appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Thus comes the English with full power upon us; And more than carefully it us concerns To answer royally in our defences. Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Bretagne, Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth, And you, Prince Dauphin, with all swift dispatch, To line and new repair our towns of war With men of courage and with means defendant;
Etymology
From Middle English defendaunt (“defending; defending in a suit”), borrowed from Old French defendant, present participle of defendre, from Latin dēfendere.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ddefendant
- deefndant
- defednant
- defenadnt
- defendannt
- defendantt
- defendatn
- defenddant
- defendnat
- defenndant
- deffendant
- defnedant
- dfeendant
- edfendant
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of defendant - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "defendant", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (14 here; floor ≥5).