filibuster
fil·i·bus·ter/ˈfɪləˌbəstər/noun, verb
filibuster is spelled F-I-L-I-B-U-S-T-E-R, 4 syllables: fil·i·bus·ter. The wrong spelling people search most is filabuster: about 310 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 22 of all searches for the word. Filibuster is a noun meaning “A mercenary soldier; a freebooter; specifically, a mercenary who travelled illegally in an organized group…”. The plural of filibuster is filibusters.
How many letters and syllables are in filibuster?
| Letters | 10: F-I-L-I-B-U-S-T-E-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4: fil·i·bus·ter |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 33,236th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, filabuster, about 310 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell filibuster?
Filibuster is spelled F-I-L-I-B-U-S-T-E-R. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 22 of the searches for filibuster in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is filibuster?
Filibuster appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 33,236th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce filibuster?
- UK /ˈfɪlɪbʌstə(ɹ)/
- US /ˈfɪləˌbəstər/
- US /ˈfɪləbʌstɚ/
Filibuster has 4 syllables, split fil·i·bus·ter in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-filibuster.ogg, En-au-filibuster.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of filibuster
- filibusters plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- fillibuster
- filibustering participle, present
- filibustered participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does filibuster mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A mercenary soldier; a freebooter; specifically, a mercenary who travelled illegally in an organized group from the United States to a country in Central America or the Spanish West Indies in the mid-19th century seeking economic and political benefits through armed force.
- 2
USA tactic (such as giving long, often irrelevant speeches) employed to delay the proceedings of, or the making of a decision by, a legislative body, particularly the United States Senate.
- 3
USA member of a legislative body causing such an obstruction.
verb
- 1
To take part in a private military action in a foreign country.
- 2
To use obstructionist tactics in a legislative body.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Filibuster in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | flibustier , obstruction parlementaire |
| German | Freibeuter , Dauerrede, Ermüdungsrede, Filibuster , Dauerredner , filibustern |
| Portuguese | flibusteiro |
| Spanish | filibustero |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does filibuster come from?
Borrowed from Spanish filibustero (“pirate”), from French flibustier, ultimately from Dutch vrijbuiter (“freebooter”), from vrij (“free”) + buit (“booty”) + -er (“agent”). The alteration in the first syllable in French is due to the word's being somewhat conflated with vlieboot (“light, flat-bottomed cargo vessel with two or three masts”) when it was borrowed into French or another language from Dutch. The word is cognate and analogous to English freebooter.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).