miscegenation

/mɪˌsɛd͡ʒ.əˈneɪ.ʃən/

//mɪˌsɛd͡ʒ.əˈneɪ.ʃən// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"miscegenation" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“miscegenation” is uncommon English (frequency #67,653 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#67,653
frequency rank, English
4,057
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The mixing or blending of race in marriage or breeding, interracial marriage.

Corpus desk

Index EN-miscegenation · miscegenation · English

miscegenation · rank #67,653 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #67,653
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,057
  • PHOTO-FINISH Minnetonka

Nearest frequency peer: Minnetonka (-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 “miscegenation”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for miscegenation
PropertyValue
Headwordmiscegenation
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/mɪˌsɛd͡ʒ.əˈneɪ.ʃən/
Letters13
Frequency rank#67,653
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “miscegenation” 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).miscegenationfalls 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: “Minnetonka” (#67,652), “minesweeper” (#67,651), “Mnuchin” (#67,657). Among 4,057 “M” headwords, “miscegenation” is #67,653. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

miscegenation is uncommon English at frequency #67,653 among 4,057 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /mɪˌsɛd͡ʒ.əˈneɪ.ʃən/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

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

  1. 1
    The mixing or blending of race in marriage or breeding, interracial marriage.
  2. 2
    A mixing or blending, especially one which is considered to be inappropriate.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Anissimov took to posting paranoid white supremacist rants on Twitter. Why, he asked, do “blacks get your own continent”? “European whites are being replaced and destroyed by ‘diversity,’” he cried. He denounced miscegenation and declared that women should be confined to the home.
  2. as is clear in the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, it has a horror of any spiritual miscegenation between the human and the natural.

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

miscegenyrace mixingrace mixer

This word in other languages

mestizaje(Español)métissage(Français)

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 "miscegenation"?
"miscegenation" is spelled M-I-S-C-E-G-E-N-A-T-I-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is /mɪˌsɛd͡ʒ.əˈneɪ.ʃən/.
What does "miscegenation" mean?
As a noun, "miscegenation" means: The mixing or blending of race in marriage or breeding, interracial marriage.
How do you pronounce "miscegenation"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "miscegenation" is /mɪˌsɛd͡ʒ.əˈneɪ.ʃən/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "miscegenation"?
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 u... 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 "miscegenation", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 13 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

mortification#67,661oceanographer#67,697phenylalanine#67,728interoperable#67,535

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list