kingmaker
/ˈkɪŋmeɪkə/
"kingmaker" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“kingmaker” is uncommon English (frequency #66,018 among 9,255 “K” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #66,018
- frequency rank, English
- 9,255
- “K” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Someone who has strong influence over the choice of a leader.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | kingmaker |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkɪŋmeɪkə/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #66,018 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “kingmaker” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
kingmaker is uncommon English at frequency #66,018 among 9,255 “K” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈkɪŋmeɪkə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
kingmaker doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From king + maker, originally used in the 16th century in “Warwick the Kingmaker”, an epithet of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (1428–1471), a key figure in the Wars of the Roses whose actions led to King Henry VI being deposed in 1461 and Edward IV … The correct English form is kingmaker, spelled K-I-N-G-M-A-K-E-R.
Definition
- 1Someone who has strong influence over the choice of a leader.
- 2A player who is unable to win but powerful enough to decide which of the other viable players will eventually win.
Etymology
From king + maker, originally used in the 16th century in “Warwick the Kingmaker”, an epithet of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (1428–1471), a key figure in the Wars of the Roses whose actions led to King Henry VI being deposed in 1461 and Edward IV appointed in his place, then Edward IV being replaced by Henry VI again in 1470.
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 “kingmaker”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is K-I-N-G-M-A-K-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkɪŋmeɪkə/ (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.