ecclesiastic
/ɪˌkliː.ziˈæs.tɪk/
"ecclesiastic" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ecclesiastic” is an uncommon English word, ranked #74,050 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #74,050
- frequency rank, English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of or pertaining to the church; ecclesiastical.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ecclesiastic |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ɪˌkliː.ziˈæs.tɪk/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #74,050 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ecclesiastic” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ecclesiastic is 12 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɪˌkliː.ziˈæs.tɪk/. Corpus data places it at rank #74,050 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Of or pertaining to the church; ecclesiastical.".
No misspelling variants are generated for ecclesiastic in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English ecclesyastyke, from Late Latin ecclēsiasticus (“of the church”), from Ancient Greek ἐκκλησιαστικός (ekklēsiastikós). By surface analysis, ecclesiast + -ic. Doublet of Ecclesiasticus. The correct English form is ecclesiastic, spelled E-C-C-L-E-S-I-A-S-T-I-C.
Definition
- 1Of or pertaining to the church; ecclesiastical.
Etymology
From Middle English ecclesyastyke, from Late Latin ecclēsiasticus (“of the church”), from Ancient Greek ἐκκλησιαστικός (ekklēsiastikós). By surface analysis, ecclesiast + -ic. Doublet of Ecclesiasticus.
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 “ecclesiastic”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-C-C-L-E-S-I-A-S-T-I-C - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɪˌkliː.ziˈæs.tɪk/ (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.