fulminant

adj

"fulminant" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“fulminant” 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) - That fulminates.

Corpus desk

Index EN-fulminant · fulminant · English

fulminant · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "F" 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.

Key facts for fulminant
PropertyValue
Headwordfulminant
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters9
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “fulminant” in English

fulminantsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

fulminant is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for fulminant in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French fulminant, from Latin fulminō (“strike like lightning”). By surface analysis, fulminate + -ant or fulmine + -ant. The correct English form is fulminant, spelled F-U-L-M-I-N-A-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    That fulminates.
  2. 2
    Appearing quickly and with destructive effects.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how fulminant appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Fulminant hepatitis seems to be more common in females than in males (11).[…]In contrast to common belief, Chalmers (17) has shown that physical exercise during infectious hepatitis does not increase the risk of a fulminant course of disease.
  2. When his liver function was measured, an acute, fulminant hepatitis was discovered.

Etymology

Borrowed from French fulminant, from Latin fulminō (“strike like lightning”). By surface analysis, fulminate + -ant or fulmine + -ant.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "fulminant"?
"fulminant" is spelled F-U-L-M-I-N-A-N-T.
What does "fulminant" mean?
As an adjective, "fulminant" means: That fulminates.
What is the origin of the word "fulminant"?
Borrowed from French fulminant, from Latin fulminō (“strike like lightning”). By surface analysis, fulminate + -ant or fulmine + -ant. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list