kakistocracy
/kakɪsˈtɒkɹəsɪ/
"kakistocracy" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“kakistocracy” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Government under the control of a nation's worst or least-qualified citizens.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | kakistocracy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kakɪsˈtɒkɹəsɪ/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “kakistocracy” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for kakistocracy is 12 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kakɪsˈtɒkɹəsɪ/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "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.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “kakistocracy”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is K-A-K-I-S-T-O-C-R-A-C-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kakɪsˈtɒkɹəsɪ/ (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
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.