literary criticism

noun

"literary-criticism" is a 17-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“literary criticism” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
18
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature.

Corpus desk

Index EN-literary-criticism · literary criticism · English

literary criticism · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 18 letters
  • VOW-7 7 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "L" 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.

Key facts for literary criticism
PropertyValue
Headwordliterary criticism
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters18
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “literary criticism” in English

literary criticismsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

literary criticism is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature.".

literary criticism has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is literary criticism, spelled L-I-T-E-R-A-R-Y- -C-R-I-T-I-C-I-S-M.

Definition

  1. 1
    The study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how literary criticism appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning.

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

How do you spell "literary criticism"?
"literary criticism" is spelled L-I-T-E-R-A-R-Y- -C-R-I-T-I-C-I-S-M.
What does "literary criticism" mean?
As a noun, "literary criticism" means: The study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature.
What language does "literary criticism" come from?
"literary criticism" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list