mansplaining
/ˈmanˌspleɪnɪŋ/
"mansplaining" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mansplaining” is uncommon English (frequency #80,647 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #80,647
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The act of condescendingly explaining something, particularly by a man to a woman, in order to appear knowledgeable, or from a mistaken presumption that she has an inferior understanding of the topic.
Corpus desk
Index EN-mansplaining · mansplaining · English
mansplaining · rank #80,647 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #80,647
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH mannose
Nearest frequency peer: mannose (-2 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “mansplaining”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Madura
Madura
19,359 corpus weight
- malic
malic
19,357 corpus weight
- mannose
mannose
19,356 corpus weight
- mansplaining
mansplaining
19,354 corpus weight
- marchese
marchese
19,351 corpus weight
- Masaru
Masaru
19,347 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “mansplaining” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mansplaining |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmanˌspleɪnɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #80,647 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “mansplaining” in English
Rare enough to double-check
mansplaining is uncommon English at frequency #80,647 among 4,057 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈmanˌspleɪnɪŋ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The act of condescendingly explaining something, particularly by a man to a woman, in order to appear knowledgeable, or from a mistaken presumption that she has an inferior understanding of the topic.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for mansplaining, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. 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: Blend of man + explaining, or from mansplain + -ing. The correct English form is mansplaining, spelled M-A-N-S-P-L-A-I-N-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1The act of condescendingly explaining something, particularly by a man to a woman, in order to appear knowledgeable, or from a mistaken presumption that she has an inferior understanding of the topic.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how mansplaining appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Mansplaining isn't just the act of explaining while male, of course; many men manage to explain things every day without in the least insulting their listeners... Mansplaining is when a dude tells you, a woman, how to do something you already know how to do, or how you are wrong about something you are actually right about, or miscellaneous and inaccurate…
It's hard to appreciate the full pathological depths of mansplaining unless you've read late-period Heinlein, an experience comparable to being trapped in an elevator for six hours with a boorish know-it-all offering his theories on economics, politics, sex, aesthetics, military strategy, investing and myriad other topics.
Etymology
Blend of man + explaining, or from mansplain + -ing.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "mansplaining", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).