defendant
/dɪˈfɛnd.ənt/
"defendant" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“defendant” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #7,333 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #7,333
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Serving, or suitable, for defense; defensive, defending.
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) |
Where “defendant” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for defendant is 9 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dɪˈfɛnd.ənt/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,333 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "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.
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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Using “defendant”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-E-F-E-N-D-A-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /dɪˈfɛnd.ənt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “defending” - see the side-by-side comparison. defendant vs defending
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.