miscegenation
/mɪˌsɛd͡ʒ.əˈneɪ.ʃən/
"miscegenation" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“miscegenation” is an uncommon English word, ranked #67,653 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #67,653
- frequency rank, English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The mixing or blending of race in marriage or breeding, interracial marriage.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | miscegenation |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /mɪˌsɛd͡ʒ.əˈneɪ.ʃən/ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Frequency rank | #67,653 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “miscegenation” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for miscegenation is 13 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /mɪˌsɛd͡ʒ.əˈneɪ.ʃən/. Corpus data places it at rank #67,653 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.
Zero misspellings are on record for miscegenation in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Blend of Latin miscēre (“mix”) + Latin genus (“race”) + -ation. Coined by American journalist David Goodman Croly in 1864 and first used in an anonymous pamphlet he coauthored, which claimed to be written by a person who believed in the inherent unity of al… The correct English form is miscegenation, spelled M-I-S-C-E-G-E-N-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1The mixing or blending of race in marriage or breeding, interracial marriage.
- 2A mixing or blending, especially one which is considered to be inappropriate.
Etymology
Blend of Latin miscēre (“mix”) + Latin genus (“race”) + -ation. Coined by American journalist David Goodman Croly in 1864 and first used in an anonymous pamphlet he coauthored, which claimed to be written by a person who believed in the inherent unity of all racial groups, that marriage between blacks and whites would create a better race, and that the American Civil War was a fight for the latter idea. Later, it was exposed that the pretext of the pamphlet was false and that it had actually been written by a group which hoped to inflame anger, particularly against then-US President Abraham Lincoln who was up for reelection. Replaced previous amalgamation, from metallurgy.
Synonyms
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
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Using “miscegenation”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-I-S-C-E-G-E-N-A-T-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /mɪˌsɛd͡ʒ.əˈneɪ.ʃən/ (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.