developing country

noun

"developing-country" is a 17-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“developing country” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
18
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A country with low to medium income although substantial industrialization; (sometimes derogatory) a country with less industrial base, and thus often consequently widespread poverty and low Human ...

Key facts for developing country
PropertyValue
Headworddeveloping country
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters18
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “developing country” sits in English frequency

developing country falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

developing country is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A country with low to medium income although substantial industrialization; (sometimes derogatory) a country with less industrial base, and thus often consequently widespread poverty and low Human ...".

developing country has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is developing country, spelled D-E-V-E-L-O-P-I-N-G- -C-O-U-N-T-R-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    A country with low to medium income although substantial industrialization; (sometimes derogatory) a country with less industrial base, and thus often consequently widespread poverty and low Human Development Index (HDI).

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "developing country"?
"developing country" is spelled D-E-V-E-L-O-P-I-N-G- -C-O-U-N-T-R-Y.
What does "developing country" mean?
As a noun, "developing country" means: A country with low to medium income although substantial industrialization; (sometimes derogatory) a country with less industrial base, and thus often consequently widespread poverty and low Human ...
What language does "developing country" come from?
"developing country" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Using “developing country”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is D-E-V-E-L-O-P-I-N-G- -C-O-U-N-T-R-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list