major general

noun

"major-general" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A military officer in the armies of most nations, typically ranking below a lieutenant general and above a brigadier.

Key facts for major general
PropertyValue
Headwordmajor general
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “major general” sits in English frequency

major general falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

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

Rare enough to double-check

major general is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A military officer in the armies of most nations, typically ranking below a lieutenant general and above a brigadier.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for major general, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is major general, spelled M-A-J-O-R- -G-E-N-E-R-A-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    A military officer in the armies of most nations, typically ranking below a lieutenant general and above a brigadier.

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 "major general"?
"major general" is spelled M-A-J-O-R- -G-E-N-E-R-A-L.
What does "major general" mean?
As a noun, "major general" means: A military officer in the armies of most nations, typically ranking below a lieutenant general and above a brigadier.
What language does "major general" come from?
"major general" 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.

Using “major general”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is M-A-J-O-R- -G-E-N-E-R-A-L - 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list