misericordia

/mɪˌzɛɹɪˈkɔːdi.ə/

//mɪˌzɛɹɪˈkɔːdi.ə// noun

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

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

The verdict

“misericordia” is uncommon English (frequency #87,568 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#87,568
frequency rank, English
4,057
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An amercement.

Corpus desk

Index EN-misericordia · misericordia · English

misericordia · rank #87,568 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #87,568
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,057
  • PHOTO-FINISH misdirect

Nearest frequency peer: misdirect (-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 “misericordia”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for misericordia
PropertyValue
Headwordmisericordia
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/mɪˌzɛɹɪˈkɔːdi.ə/
Letters12
Frequency rank#87,568
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “misericordia” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).misericordiafalls in this rarity band:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “misdirect” (#87,567), “miscast” (#87,566), “Mitte” (#87,572). Among 4,057 “M” headwords, “misericordia” is #87,568. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

misericordia is uncommon English at frequency #87,568 among 4,057 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /mɪˌzɛɹɪˈkɔːdi.ə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 7 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for misericordia, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin misericordia. Doublet of misericord. The correct English form is misericordia, spelled M-I-S-E-R-I-C-O-R-D-I-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    An amercement.
  2. 2
    A misericord, a thin-bladed dagger, used in the Middle Ages to give the death wound or mercy stroke to a fallen adversary.
  3. 3
    An indulgence as to food or dress granted to a member of a religious order.
  4. 4
    A charitable institution, established by royal foundation and managed by a religious order for providing care to the poor, the sick, prisoners, orphans, etc.
  5. 5
    One or all of the members of the religious order that operates a misericordia.
  6. 6
    A song that is sung as part of a service asking for God's mercy.
  7. 7
    Compassionate mercy.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. It is likely there was some Difference between a Misericordia and an Amerciament. For Example : It was called an Amercement, after it was reduced to a certain Sum; and a Misericordia both before and afterwards.
  2. Neither do I see any reason why such an award of a misericordia by a judge of a court-leet, should express any certain sum for which the party should be in misericordia, except in such cases only where no other person is afterwards to affere it; for in other cases the award of a misericordia is only in order to authorise others to fix the sum which the pa…

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin misericordia. Doublet of misericord.

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 "misericordia"?
"misericordia" is spelled M-I-S-E-R-I-C-O-R-D-I-A. The IPA pronunciation is /mɪˌzɛɹɪˈkɔːdi.ə/.
What does "misericordia" mean?
As a noun, "misericordia" means: An amercement.
How do you pronounce "misericordia"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "misericordia" is /mɪˌzɛɹɪˈkɔːdi.ə/. 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 "misericordia"?
Borrowed from Latin misericordia. Doublet of misericord. 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 "misericordia", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

plasterboard#87,684premenstrual#87,702Invercargill#87,407hydrofluoric#87,389

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list