driving licence

noun

"driving-licence" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
15
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A driver's licence; an official identification document which states the recipient may drive a motorised vehicle.

Corpus desk

Index EN-driving-licence · driving licence · English

driving licence · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 15 letters
  • VOW-5 5 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.

Key facts for driving licence
PropertyValue
Headworddriving licence
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters15
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “driving licence” in English

driving licencefalls 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

driving licence is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A driver's licence; an official identification document which states the recipient may drive a motorised vehicle.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for driving licence in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is driving licence, spelled D-R-I-V-I-N-G- -L-I-C-E-N-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    A driver's licence; an official identification document which states the recipient may drive a motorised vehicle.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. The unnamed driver appeared before the South East Traffic Commissioner in late November, to receive a six-month HGV driving ban. It followed an earlier court appearance when he was fined a means-tested £715 and given six points on his driving licence for driving without due care and attention.

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 "driving licence"?
"driving licence" is spelled D-R-I-V-I-N-G- -L-I-C-E-N-C-E.
What does "driving licence" mean?
As a noun, "driving licence" means: A driver's licence; an official identification document which states the recipient may drive a motorised vehicle.
What language does "driving licence" come from?
"driving licence" 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list