exfiltrate
/ˈɛksfɪltɹeɪt/
"exfiltrate" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“exfiltrate” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. 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) - To withdraw (troops, operatives, etc.) surreptitiously from a dangerous position.
Corpus desk
Index EN-exfiltrate · exfiltrate · English
exfiltrate · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 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 | exfiltrate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈɛksfɪltɹeɪt/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “exfiltrate” in English
Rare enough to double-check
exfiltrate is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed /ˈɛksfɪltɹeɪt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
exfiltrate has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. 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: After infiltrate. The correct English form is exfiltrate, spelled E-X-F-I-L-T-R-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1To withdraw (troops, operatives, etc.) surreptitiously from a dangerous position.
- 2To covertly extract data.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how exfiltrate appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
[B]ack in 2017, the CIA had exfiltrated a long-standing source who worked for Putin’s foreign policy chief and had been passing the agency secrets for years. There may be others still in place.
There are multiple ways to exfiltrate files from a compromised system. Since you have ssh access, you can always use sftp or scp, but I want to show you another way of moving files using netcat.
Etymology
After infiltrate.
Antonyms
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.