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PlainSpell

illiberal

adjective, noun

illiberal is spelled I-L-L-I-B-E-R-A-L: 9 letters. It appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 56,108th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, illiberal means “Restricting or failing to sufficiently promote individual choice and freedom” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in illiberal?

Letters9: I-L-L-I-B-E-R-A-L
In writingabout once in every 4 million words; the 56,108th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is illiberal?

Illiberal appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 56,108th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Forms of illiberal

  • more illiberal comparative
  • most illiberal superlative
  • illiberals plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does illiberal mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Restricting or failing to sufficiently promote individual choice and freedom.

  2. 2

    Narrow-minded; bigoted.

  3. 3

    archaicUngenerous, stingy.

  4. 4

    Not adhering to either liberalism or neoliberalism.

noun

  1. 1

    One opposed to liberal principles.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Illiberal in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchillibérale (restrictive to individual choice and freedom), intolérant (narrow-minded), ladre (stingy)
Germanengherzig (restrictive to individual choice and freedom), engstirnig (narrow-minded), knauserig (stingy)
Spanishiliberal (restrictive to individual choice and freedom), intolerante (narrow-minded)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does illiberal come from?

From Middle French illibéral, from Latin illiberalis, equivalent to il- + liberal.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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