misadventure

noun

"misadventure" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“misadventure” is uncommon English (frequency #62,326 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#62,326
frequency rank, English
4,057
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An accidental mishap or misfortune.

Corpus desk

Index EN-misadventure · misadventure · English

misadventure · rank #62,326 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #62,326
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,057
  • PHOTO-FINISH minuet

Nearest frequency peer: minuet (-1 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 “misadventure”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “misadventure” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for misadventure
PropertyValue
Headwordmisadventure
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters12
Frequency rank#62,326
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “misadventure” in English

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).misadventurefalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Rare peers in the same band: “minuet” (#62,325), “Mishima” (#62,327), “minter” (#62,324). Among 4,057 “M” headwords, “misadventure” is #62,326. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

misadventure is uncommon English at frequency #62,326 among 4,057 “M” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An accidental mishap or misfortune.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for misadventure, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English misaventure, from Old French mesaventure, equivalent to mis- + adventure. The correct English form is misadventure, spelled M-I-S-A-D-V-E-N-T-U-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    An accidental mishap or misfortune.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how misadventure appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. It is said that every life has its roses and thorns; there seemed, however, to have been a misadventure or mistake in Stephen's case, whereby somebody else had become possessed of his roses, and he had become possessed of the same somebody else's thorns in addition to his own.
  2. There were, however, 34 deaths among passengers in movement accidents, due mainly to misadventure and carelessness when entering and leaving trains in motion, falling off platforms and out of carriages, and opening and closing carriage doors.

Etymology

From Middle English misaventure, from Old French mesaventure, equivalent to mis- + adventure.

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 "misadventure"?
"misadventure" is spelled M-I-S-A-D-V-E-N-T-U-R-E.
What does "misadventure" mean?
As a noun, "misadventure" means: An accidental mishap or misfortune.
What is the origin of the word "misadventure"?
From Middle English misaventure, from Old French mesaventure, equivalent to mis- + adventure. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "misadventure", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list