honour killing
"honour-killing" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“honour killing” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A typically Middle Eastern and South Asian cultural practice whereby a family member, usually female, is murdered by other family members, the act being justified as retribution for a (usually sexu...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | honour killing |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “honour killing” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
honour killing is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A typically Middle Eastern and South Asian cultural practice whereby a family member, usually female, is murdered by other family members, the act being justified as retribution for a (usually sexu...".
honour killing doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: Compound of honour + killing. The correct English form is honour killing, spelled H-O-N-O-U-R- -K-I-L-L-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1A typically Middle Eastern and South Asian cultural practice whereby a family member, usually female, is murdered by other family members, the act being justified as retribution for a (usually sexual) slight upon the family's honour.
Etymology
Compound of honour + killing.
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
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Using “honour killing”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-O-N-O-U-R- -K-I-L-L-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.