metacognition
"metacognition" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“metacognition” is uncommon English (frequency #96,223 among 36,575 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #96,223
- frequency rank, English
- 36,575
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The act of thinking about thinking.
Corpus desk
Index EN-metacognition · metacognition · English
metacognition · rank #96,223 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #96,223
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 36,575
- PHOTO-FINISH methyltransfe…
Nearest frequency peer: methyltransferase (+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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “metacognition”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- McNeely
McNeely
3,785 corpus weight
- McWhorter
McWhorter
3,784 corpus weight
- megastore
megastore
3,782 corpus weight
- metacogniti…
metacognition
3,778 corpus weight
- methyltrans…
methyltransferase
3,776 corpus weight
- microcode
microcode
3,772 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “metacognition” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | metacognition |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 13 |
| Frequency rank | #96,223 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “metacognition” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
metacognition is uncommon English at frequency #96,223 among 36,575 “M” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The act of thinking about thinking.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for metacognition, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From meta- + cognition. The correct English form is metacognition, spelled M-E-T-A-C-O-G-N-I-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1The act of thinking about thinking.
Etymology
From meta- + cognition.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "metacognition", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 13 letters (nearest by frequency 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.