fidelity
/fɪˈdɛl.ɪ.ti/
"fidelity" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fidelity” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #14,536 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #14,536
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Faithfulness to one's moral or civic duties.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fidelity |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /fɪˈdɛl.ɪ.ti/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #14,536 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “fidelity” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for fidelity is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fɪˈdɛl.ɪ.ti/. Corpus data places it at rank #14,536 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for fidelity, with forms such as "fdielity", "ffidelity", and "fiddelity". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "finality", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: 15th century, from Middle English [Term?], from Middle French fidélité, from Latin fidēlitās, from fidēlis (“faithful”), from fidēs (“faith, loyalty”) (English faith), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰidʰ-, zero-grade of *bʰeydʰ- (“to command, to persuade, to tr… The correct English form is fidelity, spelled F-I-D-E-L-I-T-Y.
Definition
- 1Faithfulness to one's moral or civic duties.
- 2Loyalty to one's spouse or partner, including abstention from cheating or extramarital affairs.
- 3Accuracy, or exact correspondence to some given quality or fact.
- 4The degree to which a system accurately reproduces an input.
- 5Faithfulness to God and one's religion.
Etymology
15th century, from Middle English [Term?], from Middle French fidélité, from Latin fidēlitās, from fidēlis (“faithful”), from fidēs (“faith, loyalty”) (English faith), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰidʰ-, zero-grade of *bʰeydʰ- (“to command, to persuade, to trust”) (English bide). Doublet of fealty.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: fdielity,ffidelity,fiddelity,fideilty,fidelitty,fidelityy,fideliyt,fidellity,fideltiy,fidleity,fiedlity,ifdelity
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of fidelity - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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
How do you spell "fidelity"?
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Using “fidelity”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-I-D-E-L-I-T-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /fɪˈdɛl.ɪ.ti/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “finality” - see the side-by-side comparison. fidelity vs finality
- 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.