militant
/ˈmɪlɪtənt/
"militant" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“militant” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #12,643 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #12,643
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Fighting or disposed to fight; belligerent, warlike.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | militant |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈmɪlɪtənt/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #12,643 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “militant” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for militant is 8 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmɪlɪtənt/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,643 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.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for militant, with forms such as "imlitant", "miiltant", and "miliatnt". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "military", "militancy", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French militant, from Latin mīlitāns, present participle of mīlitāre (“to serve as a soldier”). The correct English form is militant, spelled M-I-L-I-T-A-N-T.
Definition
- 1Fighting or disposed to fight; belligerent, warlike.
- 2Aggressively supporting of an idea, group, political or social cause, etc.; adamant, combative.
Etymology
From Middle French militant, from Latin mīlitāns, present participle of mīlitāre (“to serve as a soldier”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: imlitant,miiltant,miliatnt,militannt,militantt,militatn,militnat,milittant,millitant,miltiant,mliitant,mmilitant
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of militant - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "militant"?
What does "militant" mean?
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Using “militant”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-I-L-I-T-A-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmɪlɪtənt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “military” - see the side-by-side comparison. militant vs military
- 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.