embezzle
/ɪmˈbɛz.əl/
"embezzle" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“embezzle” is an uncommon English word, ranked #93,659 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #93,659
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To steal or misappropriate money that one has been trusted with, especially to steal money from the organisation for which one works.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | embezzle |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɪmˈbɛz.əl/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #93,659 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “embezzle” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for embezzle is 8 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɪmˈbɛz.əl/. Corpus data places it at rank #93,659 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To steal or misappropriate money that one has been trusted with, especially to steal money from the organisation for which one works.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for embezzle, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English embesilen, from Anglo-Norman embesiler, embesillier, embeseillier (“to steal, cause to disappear”), from em- + Old French besillier (“to torment, destroy, gouge”), of unknown origin. The correct English form is embezzle, spelled E-M-B-E-Z-Z-L-E.
Definition
- 1To steal or misappropriate money that one has been trusted with, especially to steal money from the organisation for which one works.
Etymology
From Middle English embesilen, from Anglo-Norman embesiler, embesillier, embeseillier (“to steal, cause to disappear”), from em- + Old French besillier (“to torment, destroy, gouge”), of unknown origin.
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 “embezzle”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-M-B-E-Z-Z-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɪmˈbɛz.əl/ (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.