innumeracy
"innumeracy" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“innumeracy” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Lack of numeracy; low numeracy.
Corpus desk
Index EN-innumeracy · innumeracy · English
innumeracy · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | innumeracy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “innumeracy” in English
Rare enough to double-check
innumeracy is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Lack of numeracy; low numeracy.".
No misspelling variants are generated for innumeracy in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From in- + numeracy; coined by Douglas Hofstadter and popularized by mathematician John Allen Paulos in his 1989 book Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences. The correct English form is innumeracy, spelled I-N-N-U-M-E-R-A-C-Y.
Definition
- 1Lack of numeracy; low numeracy.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how innumeracy appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
John Allen Paulos and others have asked our society to consider numeracy and innumeracy in a way closer to how we view literacy and illiteracy.
The man suffered from innumeracy stemming from a brain injury, and depended on his wife for all financial matters, no matter how trivial.
Etymology
From in- + numeracy; coined by Douglas Hofstadter and popularized by mathematician John Allen Paulos in his 1989 book Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences.
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.