illiberal
"illiberal" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“illiberal” is an uncommon English word, ranked #56,194 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #56,194
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Restricting or failing to sufficiently promote individual choice and freedom.
| 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) |
Where “illiberal” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for illiberal is 9 letters long, classified as an adjective. Corpus data places it at rank #56,194 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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.
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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Using “illiberal”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-L-L-I-B-E-R-A-L - 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.