illiberalism

noun

"illiberalism" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“illiberalism” 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 principle, state or quality of being illiberal.

Corpus desk

Index EN-illiberalism · illiberalism · English

illiberalism · 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 "I" 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.

Key facts for illiberalism
PropertyValue
Headwordilliberalism
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “illiberalism” in English

illiberalismfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

illiberalism is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The principle, state or quality of being illiberal.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for illiberalism, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Etymologically, the entry records: From illiberal + -ism. The correct English form is illiberalism, spelled I-L-L-I-B-E-R-A-L-I-S-M.

Definition

  1. 1
    The principle, state or quality of being illiberal.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how illiberalism appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. As the Oxford political theorist Michael Freeden observed, if just one of the necessary components — for example, the free market — dominates, then the result can be illiberalism.
  2. In the Netherlands, the anti-immigrant right became the second-most-popular vote-getter — a new high-water mark for illiberalism in that once famously liberal country.

Etymology

From illiberal + -ism.

Synonyms

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

How do you spell "illiberalism"?
"illiberalism" is spelled I-L-L-I-B-E-R-A-L-I-S-M.
What does "illiberalism" mean?
As a noun, "illiberalism" means: The principle, state or quality of being illiberal.
What is the origin of the word "illiberalism"?
From illiberal + -ism. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list