divestiture

/dɪˈvɛstɪt͡ʃɚ/

//dɪˈvɛstɪt͡ʃɚ// noun

"divestiture" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“divestiture” is uncommon English (frequency #69,002 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#69,002
frequency rank, English
3,470
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The act of selling something off, especially an investment or a business.

Corpus desk

Index EN-divestiture · divestiture · English

divestiture · rank #69,002 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #69,002
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,470
  • PHOTO-FINISH dispersive

Nearest frequency peer: dispersive (-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 “divestiture”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for divestiture
PropertyValue
Headworddivestiture
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/dɪˈvɛstɪt͡ʃɚ/
Letters11
Frequency rank#69,002
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “divestiture” in English

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).divestiturefalls in this rarity band:

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

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “dispersive” (#69,001), “disentangle” (#69,000), “disbelieving” (#68,999). Among 3,470 “D” headwords, “divestiture” is #69,002. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

divestiture is uncommon English at frequency #69,002 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /dɪˈvɛstɪt͡ʃɚ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

divestiture has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is divestiture, spelled D-I-V-E-S-T-I-T-U-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    The act of selling something off, especially an investment or a business.
  2. 2
    The process of stripping away an individual's confidence, values and attitudes in order to indoctrinate the individual into an organization.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how divestiture appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Organic sales, which exclude the impact of acquisitions, divestitures and foreign exchange, are now expected to rise 2 per cent to 5 per cent[…].
  2. And finally, the transnational discourses of antiapartheidism and divestiture had led the U.K. television industry to ban sales of current programs to South Africa, again shaping the ways Bop-TV could enact its particular form of antigovernment, antiapartheid cultural politics.

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 "divestiture"?
"divestiture" is spelled D-I-V-E-S-T-I-T-U-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is /dɪˈvɛstɪt͡ʃɚ/.
What does "divestiture" mean?
As a noun, "divestiture" means: The act of selling something off, especially an investment or a business.
How do you pronounce "divestiture"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "divestiture" is /dɪˈvɛstɪt͡ʃɚ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "divestiture" come from?
"divestiture" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "divestiture", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list