illiberal
"illiberal" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“illiberal” is uncommon English (frequency #56,194 among 2,140 “I” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #56,194
- frequency rank, English
- 2,140
- “I” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Restricting or failing to sufficiently promote individual choice and freedom.
Corpus desk
Index EN-illiberal · illiberal · English
illiberal · rank #56,194 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #56,194
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,140
- PHOTO-FINISH Hyrule
Nearest frequency peer: Hyrule (-3 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.
Long-tail ranks near “illiberal”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Huo
Huo
43,813 corpus weight
- hypnotism
hypnotism
43,811 corpus weight
- Hyrule
Hyrule
43,810 corpus weight
- illiberal
illiberal
43,807 corpus weight
- impressioni…
impressionistic
43,804 corpus weight
- initialize
initialize
43,802 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “illiberal” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | illiberal |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #56,194 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “illiberal” in English
Rare enough to double-check
illiberal is uncommon English at frequency #56,194 among 2,140 “I” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for illiberal in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French illibéral, from Latin illiberalis, equivalent to il- + liberal. The correct English form is illiberal, spelled I-L-L-I-B-E-R-A-L.
Definition
- 1Restricting or failing to sufficiently promote individual choice and freedom.
- 2Narrow-minded; bigoted.
- 3Ungenerous, stingy.
- 4Not adhering to either liberalism or neoliberalism.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how illiberal appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Behind Europe's commitment to liberal democracy lurks an illiberal tradition. Every time freedom has failed in Europe, it is to that tradition - of violent repression, totalitarianism, xenophobia, and intolerance - that Europeans have reverted.
Unless the administration compels all workers to invest in life cycle accounts — an illiberal but nonetheless sensible idea — this particular danger cannot be eliminated.
Etymology
From Middle French illibéral, from Latin illiberalis, equivalent to il- + liberal.
Antonyms
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); 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 "illiberal", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).