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indispensable

/ˌɪndɪˈspɛnsəbəl/adjective, noun

indispensable is spelled I-N-D-I-S-P-E-N-S-A-B-L-E. The wrong spelling people search most is indispensible: about 190 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Indispensable is an adjective meaning “Absolutely necessary or requisite; that one cannot do without”.

How many letters and syllables are in indispensable?

Letters13: I-N-D-I-S-P-E-N-S-A-B-L-E
Syllables5 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing2.2 times per million words; the 18,537th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched3; the most searched, indispensible, about 190 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell indispensable?

Indispensable is spelled I-N-D-I-S-P-E-N-S-A-B-L-E. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for indispensable in either form.

indispensablethe right spelling1,650 searches a month
indispensiblei in place of a190 searches a month
indespensiblee in place of i, i in place of a120 searches a month
indespensablee in place of i70 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is indispensable?

Indispensable appears 2.2 times per million words in written English, the 18,537th 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).

How do you pronounce indispensable?

  • US /ˌɪndɪˈspɛnsəbəl/
  • Australia /ˌɪndɪˈspensəbəl/

Indispensable has 5 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-indispensable.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with indispensable?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as indispensable from its last stressed vowel (/ɛnsəbəl/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of indispensable

  • more indispensable comparative
  • most indispensable superlative
  • indispensables plural

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

What does indispensable mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Absolutely necessary or requisite; that one cannot do without.

    An indispensable component of a heart-healthy diet.

  2. 2

    Unbendable, that cannot be set aside or ignored.

  3. 3

    obsoleteNot admitting ecclesiastical dispensation; not subject to release or exemption; that cannot be allowed by bending the canonical rules.

noun

  1. 1

    A thing that is not dispensable; a necessity.

  2. 2

    colloquialdatedTrousers.

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

Indispensable in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchindispensable (absolutely necessary)
Germanunentbehrlich (absolutely necessary), ausnahmlos, grundsätzlich (not subject to exemption), unverzichtbar (not dispensable)
Portugueseindispensável, imprescindível (absolutely necessary)
Spanishimprescindible, indispensable, indefectible (absolutely necessary)

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 indispensable come from?

Borrowed from Middle French indispensable, from Medieval Latin indispensābilis, corresponding to in- + dispensable.

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

What to look up after indispensable