kakistocracy
/kakɪsˈtɒkɹəsɪ/
"kakistocracy" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“kakistocracy” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Government under the control of a nation's worst or least-qualified citizens.
Corpus desk
Index EN-kakistocracy · kakistocracy · English
kakistocracy · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "K" 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 | kakistocracy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kakɪsˈtɒkɹəsɪ/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “kakistocracy” in English
Rare enough to double-check
kakistocracy is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /kakɪsˈtɒkɹəsɪ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Government under the control of a nation's worst or least-qualified citizens.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for kakistocracy, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Ancient Greek κάκιστος (kákistos, “worst”), superlative of κακός (kakós, “bad”) + -κρατία (-kratía, “power, rule, government”) (corresponding to -cracy). The word was used, perhaps re-coined, by the English author Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866) in his… The correct English form is kakistocracy, spelled K-A-K-I-S-T-O-C-R-A-C-Y.
Definition
- 1Government under the control of a nation's worst or least-qualified citizens.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how kakistocracy appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Therefore we need not make any scruple of praying against […] those restlesse spirits who can no longer live, then be stickling and medling; who are stung with a perpetuall itch of changing and innovating, transforming our old Hierarchy into a new Presbytery, and this againe into a newer Independency; and our well-temperd Monarchy into a mad kinde of Kaki…
The people lived in darkness and vassalage. […] they were utterly destitute of the blessing of those "schools for all," the house of correction, and the treadmill, wherein the autochthonal justice of our agrestic kakistocracy now castigates the heinous sins which were then committed with impunity, […]
Etymology
From Ancient Greek κάκιστος (kákistos, “worst”), superlative of κακός (kakós, “bad”) + -κρατία (-kratía, “power, rule, government”) (corresponding to -cracy). The word was used, perhaps re-coined, by the English author Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866) in his 1829 novella The Misfortunes of Elphin as the opposite of aristocracy (see second quotation).
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.