insubordinate
"insubordinate" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“insubordinate” is uncommon English (frequency #75,077 among 2,140 “I” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #75,077
- frequency rank, English
- 2,140
- “I” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Rebellious or defiant to authority; contumacious.
Corpus desk
Index EN-insubordinate · insubordinate · English
insubordinate · rank #75,077 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #75,077
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,140
- PHOTO-FINISH intemperate
Nearest frequency peer: intemperate (+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 “insubordinate”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- inheritor
inheritor
24,928 corpus weight
- inseam
inseam
24,926 corpus weight
- insubordina…
insubordinate
24,924 corpus weight
- intemperate
intemperate
24,923 corpus weight
- interspecies
interspecies
24,922 corpus weight
- invalidity
invalidity
24,920 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “insubordinate” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | insubordinate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 13 |
| Frequency rank | #75,077 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “insubordinate” in English
Rare enough to double-check
insubordinate is uncommon English at frequency #75,077 among 2,140 “I” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Rebellious or defiant to authority; contumacious.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for insubordinate in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From in- + subordinate, on model of French insubordonné. The correct English form is insubordinate, spelled I-N-S-U-B-O-R-D-I-N-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1Rebellious or defiant to authority; contumacious.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how insubordinate appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I remembered with confusion my insubordinate and stealthy conduct, and when I saw where it had brought me […] I felt ashamed to look him in the face.
Etymology
From in- + subordinate, on model of French insubordonné.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "insubordinate", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 13 letters (nearest by frequency rank).