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 2,140 “I” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#70,773
frequency rank, English
2,140
“I” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To teach (a person) with a biased, one-sided or uncritical ideology; to brainwash.

Corpus desk

Index EN-indoctrinate · indoctrinate · English

indoctrinate · rank #70,773 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #70,773
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,140
  • PHOTO-FINISH indexation

Nearest frequency peer: indexation (-1 rank slots)

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.

Long-tail ranks near “indoctrinate”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “indoctrinate” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for indoctrinate
PropertyValue
Headwordindoctrinate
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters12
Frequency rank#70,773
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “indoctrinate” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).indoctrinatefalls in this rarity band:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “indexation” (#70,772), “induct” (#70,774), “impregnation” (#70,770). Among 2,140 “I” headwords, “indoctrinate” is #70,773. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

indoctrinate is uncommon English at frequency #70,773 among 2,140 “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.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. [...] it was beyond their hope to indoctrinate Marxism-Leninism-Mao's "thought" into the mind of young generation. The young generation does not care about Communism.
  2. [They] attempt to further indoctrinate Christian values into local communities by first distorting the substance of the traditional rituals and then imputing another set of values to them.

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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "indoctrinate", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

impregnation#70,770impertinence#70,769gratuitously#70,714misdiagnosis#70,906

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list