designator

noun

"designator" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“designator” is uncommon English (frequency #79,449 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#79,449
frequency rank, English
3,470
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A person who, or term that, designates.

Corpus desk

Index EN-designator · designator · English

designator · rank #79,449 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #79,449
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,470
  • PHOTO-FINISH denizen

Nearest frequency peer: denizen (-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 “designator”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “designator” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for designator
PropertyValue
Headworddesignator
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters10
Frequency rank#79,449
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “designator” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).designatorfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Rare peers in the same band: “denizen” (#79,448), “denialism” (#79,447), “developement” (#79,451). Among 3,470 “D” headwords, “designator” is #79,449. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

designator is uncommon English at frequency #79,449 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for designator in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From designate + -or. The correct English form is designator, spelled D-E-S-I-G-N-A-T-O-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    A person who, or term that, designates.
  2. 2
    An officer who assigned to each his rank and place in public shows and ceremonies.

Etymology

From designate + -or.

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

How do you spell "designator"?
"designator" is spelled D-E-S-I-G-N-A-T-O-R.
What does "designator" mean?
As a noun, "designator" means: A person who, or term that, designates.
What is the origin of the word "designator"?
From designate + -or. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "designator", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list