infestation
/ɪnfɛsˈteɪʃən/
"infestation" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“infestation” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #23,314 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #23,314
- frequency rank, English
- 11
- letters
- 17
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The presence of a large number of pest organisms in an area or field, on the surface of a host or anything that might contact a host, or in the soil.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | infestation |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɪnfɛsˈteɪʃən/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #23,314 |
| Misspellings tracked | 17 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “infestation” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for infestation is 11 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɪnfɛsˈteɪʃən/. Corpus data places it at rank #23,314 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The presence of a large number of pest organisms in an area or field, on the surface of a host or anything that might contact a host, or in the soil.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 17 likely wrong-spelling variants for infestation, with forms such as "ifnestation", "inefstation", and "infesattion". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "indentation", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French infestation, from Late Latin infestatio. Morphologically infest + -ation. The correct English form is infestation, spelled I-N-F-E-S-T-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1The presence of a large number of pest organisms in an area or field, on the surface of a host or anything that might contact a host, or in the soil.
Etymology
From Middle French infestation, from Late Latin infestatio. Morphologically infest + -ation.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ifnestation,inefstation,infesattion,infesstation,infestaiton,infestasion,infestatino,infestationn,infestatoin,infestattion,infesttaion,infesttation,infetsation,inffestation,infsetation,innfestation,nifestation
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of infestation - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “infestation”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-N-F-E-S-T-A-T-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɪnfɛsˈteɪʃən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “indentation” - see the side-by-side comparison. infestation vs indentation
- 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.