discountenance
/dɪsˈkaʊntənəns/
"discountenance" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“discountenance” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To have an unfavorable opinion of; to deprecate or disapprove of.
Corpus desk
Index EN-discountenance · discountenance · English
discountenance · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "D" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | discountenance |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /dɪsˈkaʊntənəns/ |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “discountenance” in English
Rare enough to double-check
discountenance is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed /dɪsˈkaʊntənəns/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for discountenance, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French descontenancer (compare French décontenancer). The correct English form is discountenance, spelled D-I-S-C-O-U-N-T-E-N-A-N-C-E.
Definition
- 1To have an unfavorable opinion of; to deprecate or disapprove of.
- 2To abash, embarrass or disconcert.
- 3To refuse countenance or support to; to discourage.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how discountenance appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
A town meeting was convened to discountenance riot.
So far from friendship being an institution whose value is recognised and understood, it is at best scantily acknowledged, and is often actually discountenanced and misunderstood.
Etymology
From Middle French descontenancer (compare French décontenancer).
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.