militate
/ˈmɪlɪteɪt/
"militate" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“militate” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To give force or effect toward; to influence.
Corpus desk
Index EN-militate · militate · English
militate · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "M" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | militate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈmɪlɪteɪt/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “militate” in English
Rare enough to double-check
militate is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed /ˈmɪlɪteɪt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for militate, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: First attested in 1598; borrowed from Latin mīlitātus, perfect passive participle from mīlitō, see -ate (verb-forming suffix). Semantically from its cognate, French militer. The correct English form is militate, spelled M-I-L-I-T-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1To give force or effect toward; to influence.
- 2To serve as a soldier or participate in warfare.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how militate appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
to militate in favor of a particular result
to militate against the possibility of his election
Etymology
First attested in 1598; borrowed from Latin mīlitātus, perfect passive participle from mīlitō, see -ate (verb-forming suffix). Semantically from its cognate, French militer.
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.