investigatory
"investigatory" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“investigatory” is uncommon English (frequency #51,184 among 2,140 “I” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #51,184
- frequency rank, English
- 2,140
- “I” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Aimed at investigating.
Corpus desk
Index EN-investigatory · investigatory · English
investigatory · rank #51,184 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #51,184
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,140
- PHOTO-FINISH interventional
Nearest frequency peer: interventional (-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 “investigatory”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- infomercial
infomercial
48,821 corpus weight
- interventio…
interventional
48,818 corpus weight
- investigato…
investigatory
48,817 corpus weight
- Irani
Irani
48,816 corpus weight
- Ishtar
Ishtar
48,815 corpus weight
- ISRO
ISRO
48,814 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “investigatory” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | investigatory |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 13 |
| Frequency rank | #51,184 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “investigatory” in English
Rare enough to double-check
investigatory is uncommon English at frequency #51,184 among 2,140 “I” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Aimed at investigating.".
investigatory has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. 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 investigate + -ory. The correct English form is investigatory, spelled I-N-V-E-S-T-I-G-A-T-O-R-Y.
Definition
- 1Aimed at investigating.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how investigatory appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Microsoft is subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Etymology
From investigate + -ory.
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 "investigatory", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 13 letters (nearest by frequency rank).