indoctrinate

verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

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

The verdict

“indoctrinate” is uncommon English (frequency #70,773 among 17,902 “I” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#70,773
frequency rank, English
17,902
“I” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To teach (a person) with a biased, one-sided or uncritical ideology; to brainwash.

Key facts for indoctrinate
PropertyValue
Headwordindoctrinate
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters12
Frequency rank#70,773
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “indoctrinate” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). indoctrinate lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

indoctrinate is uncommon English at frequency #70,773 among 17,902 “I” headwords, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for indoctrinate, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: From in- + doctrine + -ate (verb-forming suffix). Compare French endoctriner. The correct English form is indoctrinate, spelled I-N-D-O-C-T-R-I-N-A-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    To teach (a person) with a biased, one-sided or uncritical ideology; to brainwash.
  2. 2
    To teach and instill (something, to a person) in a biased, one-sided way.
  3. 3
    To teach; to instruct.

Etymology

From in- + doctrine + -ate (verb-forming suffix). Compare French endoctriner.

This word in other languages

adoctrinar(Español)endoctriner(Français)indoktrinieren(Deutsch)doutrinar(Português)

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

How do you spell "indoctrinate"?
"indoctrinate" is spelled I-N-D-O-C-T-R-I-N-A-T-E.
What does "indoctrinate" mean?
As a verb, "indoctrinate" means: To teach (a person) with a biased, one-sided or uncritical ideology; to brainwash.
What is the origin of the word "indoctrinate"?
From in- + doctrine + -ate (verb-forming suffix). Compare French endoctriner. 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.

Using “indoctrinate”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is I-N-D-O-C-T-R-I-N-A-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words

Other uncommon English words near this rank

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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list