ex officio
/ˌɛks əˈfɪʃioʊ/
"ex-officio" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ex officio” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - By virtue of the office that originated it, or of the title held.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ex-officio · ex officio · English
ex officio · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "E" 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ex officio |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | /ˌɛks əˈfɪʃioʊ/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “ex officio” in English
Rare enough to double-check
ex officio is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed /ˌɛks əˈfɪʃioʊ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "By virtue of the office that originated it, or of the title held.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for ex officio, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin ex officio (“by right of office”, literally “from the office”). The correct English form is ex officio, spelled E-X- -O-F-F-I-C-I-O.
Definition
- 1By virtue of the office that originated it, or of the title held.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ex officio appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The President of the Republic of France is, ex officio, also prince of the dyarchy called Andorra.
That friend […] added, with a smile, that he had more than once amused himself with the thought of a verbarian Attorney-General, authorized to bring informations ex officio against the writer or editor of any work in extensive circulation, who, after due notice issued, should persevere in misusing a word.
Etymology
From Latin ex officio (“by right of office”, literally “from the office”).
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.