expiatory
"expiatory" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“expiatory” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of or pertaining to expiation.
Corpus desk
Index EN-expiatory · expiatory · English
expiatory · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 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 | expiatory |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “expiatory” in English
Rare enough to double-check
expiatory is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Of or pertaining to expiation.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for expiatory, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Ecclesiastical Latin expiātōrius. The correct English form is expiatory, spelled E-X-P-I-A-T-O-R-Y.
Definition
- 1Of or pertaining to expiation.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how expiatory appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
18 January 1549, Hugh Latimer, Sermon of the Plough They would have us saved by a daily oblation propitiatory; by a sacrifice expiatory, or remissory.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Ecclesiastical Latin expiātōrius.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.