doublespeak
/ˈdəbəlˌspiːk/
"doublespeak" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“doublespeak” is an uncommon English word, ranked #90,379 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #90,379
- frequency rank, English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often by employing euphemism or ambiguity.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | doublespeak |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈdəbəlˌspiːk/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #90,379 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “doublespeak” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for doublespeak is 11 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈdəbəlˌspiːk/. Corpus data places it at rank #90,379 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Any language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often by employing euphemism or ambiguity.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for doublespeak, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From double + -speak. Coined in the 1950s in the vein of George Orwell's Newspeak as used in his book Nineteen Eighty-Four. The word doublespeak does not appear in the book, although newspeak, oldspeak, and doublethink do. The correct English form is doublespeak, spelled D-O-U-B-L-E-S-P-E-A-K.
Definition
- 1Any language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often by employing euphemism or ambiguity.
Etymology
From double + -speak. Coined in the 1950s in the vein of George Orwell's Newspeak as used in his book Nineteen Eighty-Four. The word doublespeak does not appear in the book, although newspeak, oldspeak, and doublethink do.
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); 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
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Using “doublespeak”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-O-U-B-L-E-S-P-E-A-K - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈdəbəlˌspiːk/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.