mendacity
/mɛnˈdæsəti/
"mendacity" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mendacity” is an uncommon English word, ranked #80,665 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #80,665
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The fact or condition of being untruthful; dishonesty.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mendacity |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /mɛnˈdæsəti/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #80,665 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mendacity” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for mendacity is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /mɛnˈdæsəti/. Corpus data places it at rank #80,665 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
mendacity doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Late Latin mendacitas, from Latin mendāx (“deceitful, deceptive, lying”) + -itās (suffix forming nouns indicating a state of being). Mendāx is derived from mentior (“to deceive, lie”) (from mēns, mentis (“mind; intellect; judgment, reasoning”), from Pr… The correct English form is mendacity, spelled M-E-N-D-A-C-I-T-Y.
Definition
- 1The fact or condition of being untruthful; dishonesty.
- 2A deceit, falsehood, or lie.
Etymology
From Late Latin mendacitas, from Latin mendāx (“deceitful, deceptive, lying”) + -itās (suffix forming nouns indicating a state of being). Mendāx is derived from mentior (“to deceive, lie”) (from mēns, mentis (“mind; intellect; judgment, reasoning”), from Proto-Indo-European *méntis (“thought”)) + -āx (suffix forming adjectives expressing a tendency or inclination), or from Proto-Indo-European *mend- (“to fault”).
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
How do you spell "mendacity"?
What does "mendacity" mean?
How do you pronounce "mendacity"?
What is the origin of the word "mendacity"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “mendacity”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-E-N-D-A-C-I-T-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /mɛnˈdæsəti/ (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
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.