defendant
/dɪˈfɛnd.ənt/adjective, noun
defendant is spelled D-E-F-E-N-D-A-N-T. The wrong spelling people search most is defendent: about 230 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Defendant is an adjective meaning “Serving, or suitable, for defense; defensive, defending”.
How many letters and syllables are in defendant?
| Letters | 9: D-E-F-E-N-D-A-N-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 9.5 times per million words; the 7,338th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, defendent, about 230 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell defendant?
Defendant is spelled D-E-F-E-N-D-A-N-T. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for defendant in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is defendant?
Defendant appears 9.5 times per million words in written English, the 7,338th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce defendant?
- /dɪˈfɛnd.ənt/
Defendant has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-defendant.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of defendant
- more defendant comparative
- most defendant superlative
- defendants plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does defendant mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Serving, or suitable, for defense; defensive, defending.
noun
- 1
In civil proceedings, the party responding to the complaint; one who is sued and called upon to make satisfaction for a wrong complained of by another.
- 2
In criminal proceedings, the accused.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Defendant in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense person prosecuted or sued, the accused:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | inculpé, inculpée, défendeur, défenderesse |
| German | Angeklagter, Angeklagte, Angeschuldigter, Angeschuldigte, Beschuldigter, Beschuldigte |
| Portuguese | réu, ré, acusado, acusada |
| Spanish | acusado, acusada |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does defendant come from?
From Middle English defendaunt (“defending; defending in a suit”), borrowed from Old French defendant, present participle of defendre, from Latin dēfendere.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).