miscreant
/ˈmɪs.kɹi.ənt/
"miscreant" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“miscreant” is an uncommon English word, ranked #79,763 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #79,763
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Lacking in conscience or moral principles; unscrupulous.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | miscreant |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈmɪs.kɹi.ənt/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #79,763 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “miscreant” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for miscreant is 9 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmɪs.kɹi.ənt/. Corpus data places it at rank #79,763 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 miscreant in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English myscreaunt, miscreaunt, from Old French mescreant (1080) "mis-believer", present participle of mescreire "to misbelieve" (modern mécroire). Cognate with French mécréant. The correct English form is miscreant, spelled M-I-S-C-R-E-A-N-T.
Definition
- 1Lacking in conscience or moral principles; unscrupulous.
- 2Holding an incorrect religious belief.
Etymology
From Middle English myscreaunt, miscreaunt, from Old French mescreant (1080) "mis-believer", present participle of mescreire "to misbelieve" (modern mécroire). Cognate with French mécréant.
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 “miscreant”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-I-S-C-R-E-A-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmɪs.kɹi.ənt/ (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.