intestate
/ɪnˈtɛsteɪt/
"intestate" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“intestate” is uncommon English (frequency #76,886 among 17,902 “I” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #76,886
- frequency rank, English
- 17,902
- “I” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Without a valid will indicating whom to leave one's estate to after death.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | intestate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ɪnˈtɛsteɪt/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #76,886 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “intestate” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
intestate is uncommon English at frequency #76,886 among 17,902 “I” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ɪnˈtɛsteɪt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for intestate in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin intestātus, from in- (“not”) + testātus (“testate”), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (noun-forming suffix). The correct English form is intestate, spelled I-N-T-E-S-T-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1Without a valid will indicating whom to leave one's estate to after death.
- 2Not devised or bequeathed; not disposed of by will.
Etymology
From Latin intestātus, from in- (“not”) + testātus (“testate”), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (noun-forming suffix).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
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 “intestate”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-N-T-E-S-T-A-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɪnˈtɛsteɪt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.