heterosexism
"heterosexism" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“heterosexism” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The assumption made when relating to others that everyone is heterosexual.
Corpus desk
Index EN-heterosexism · heterosexism · English
heterosexism · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "H" 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 | heterosexism |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “heterosexism” in English
Rare enough to double-check
heterosexism is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for heterosexism in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From heterosex(ual) + -ism; modelled on sexism. The correct English form is heterosexism, spelled H-E-T-E-R-O-S-E-X-I-S-M.
Definition
- 1The assumption made when relating to others that everyone is heterosexual.
- 2Discrimination or prejudice in favor of heterosexuals.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how heterosexism appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
One of the driving forces behind slash and femslash is the pervading heterosexism of commercial media – if television will not give us the due proportion of same-sex eroticism we are entitled to expect, then we will make it for ourselves.
Etymology
From heterosex(ual) + -ism; modelled on sexism.
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.