heretical
/həˈɹɛtɪkəl/
"heretical" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“heretical” has 13 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #34,917. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #34,917
- frequency rank, English
- 2,646
- “H” headwords
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of or pertaining to heresy or heretics.
Corpus desk
Index EN-heretical · heretical · English
heretical · rank #34,917 · 13 variants · 1 confusable
- FREQ-MID #34,917
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
- VAR-HIGH 13 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,646
- PHOTO-FINISH Hellenistic
Nearest frequency peer: Hellenistic (-1 rank slots)
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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “heretical”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- heatwave
heatwave
65,087 corpus weight
- Hellenic
Hellenic
65,086 corpus weight
- Hellenistic
Hellenistic
65,085 corpus weight
- heretical
heretical
65,084 corpus weight
- Herschel
Herschel
65,083 corpus weight
- Heston
Heston
65,082 corpus weight
What this shows “heretical” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | heretical |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /həˈɹɛtɪkəl/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #34,917 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “heretical”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 13 spelling variants around heretical (IPA /həˈɹɛtɪkəl/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #34,917 among 2,646 “H” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for heretical, with forms such as "ehretical", "heertical", and "hereitcal". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "heretic", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English, borrowed from Middle French eretical and from Medieval Latin haereticālis, from haereticus, equivalent to heretic + -al. See heretic. The correct English form is heretical, spelled H-E-R-E-T-I-C-A-L.
Definition
- 1Of or pertaining to heresy or heretics.
- 2Contrary to mainstream or accepted opinion.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how heretical appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
At least as Auxentius reports him in the covering letter which precedes Ulfila’s confession, he is as vehement in his opposition to what he sees as heretical alternatives to his own form of belief as most other participants in the controversies of the time. Heretics are not Christians but antichrists. Homoousians, Homoiousians, and Macedonians are all inc…
Etymology
From Middle English, borrowed from Middle French eretical and from Medieval Latin haereticālis, from haereticus, equivalent to heretic + -al. See heretic.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ehretical
- heertical
- hereitcal
- heretcial
- heretiacl
- hereticall
- hereticcal
- hereticla
- herettical
- herretical
- herteical
- hheretical
- hreetical
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of heretical - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "heretical", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (13 here; floor ≥5).