defoliant
/diːˈfəʊlɪənt/noun
defoliant is spelled D-E-F-O-L-I-A-N-T: 9 letters and 4 syllables. It appears about once in every 28 million words in written English, the 159,707th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, defoliant means “An agent used to defoliate plants” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of defoliant is defoliants.
How many letters and syllables are in defoliant?
| Letters | 9: D-E-F-O-L-I-A-N-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 28 million words; the 159,707th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is defoliant?
Defoliant appears about once in every 28 million words in written English, the 159,707th 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 defoliant?
- UK /diːˈfəʊlɪənt/
Defoliant has 4 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-defoliant.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with defoliant?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as defoliant (/əʊlɪənt/).
Spelled with the same letters in another order: deflation.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of defoliant
- defoliants plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does defoliant mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An agent used to defoliate plants.
Agent Orange is a defoliant.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Defoliant in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense agent used to defoliate plants:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | défoliant |
| German | Entlaubungsmittel |
| Spanish | defoliante |
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 defoliant come from?
From defoliate + -ant.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).