kendo
"kendo" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“kendo” is an uncommon English word, ranked #53,644 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #53,644
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A Japanese martial art using "swords" of split bamboo.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | kendo |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #53,644 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “kendo” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for kendo is 5 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #53,644 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A Japanese martial art using "swords" of split bamboo.".
Zero misspellings are on record for kendo in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Japanese 剣道 (kendō, “the way of the sword”), from Middle Chinese 劍 (kjæ̀m, “sword”) + 道 (dáu, “way”). Doublet of kumdo. The correct English form is kendo, spelled K-E-N-D-O.
Definition
- 1A Japanese martial art using "swords" of split bamboo.
Etymology
Borrowed from Japanese 剣道 (kendō, “the way of the sword”), from Middle Chinese 劍 (kjæ̀m, “sword”) + 道 (dáu, “way”). Doublet of kumdo.
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 “kendo”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is K-E-N-D-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.