momentous
/məʊˈmɛn.təs/
"momentous" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“momentous” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #25,143 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #25,143
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Outstanding in importance, of great consequence.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | momentous |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /məʊˈmɛn.təs/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #25,143 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “momentous” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for momentous is 9 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /məʊˈmɛn.təs/. Corpus data places it at rank #25,143 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Outstanding in importance, of great consequence.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for momentous, with forms such as "mmoentous", "mmomentous", and "moemntous". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "moments", "momentum", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From moment (“weight, importance”) + -ous. The correct English form is momentous, spelled M-O-M-E-N-T-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Outstanding in importance, of great consequence.
Etymology
From moment (“weight, importance”) + -ous.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: mmoentous,mmomentous,moemntous,momenntous,momenotus,momentosu,momentouss,momenttous,momentuos,mometnous,mommentous,momnetous,ommentous
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of momentous - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "momentous"?
What does "momentous" mean?
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Using “momentous”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-O-M-E-N-T-O-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /məʊˈmɛn.təs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “moments” - see the side-by-side comparison. momentous vs moments
- 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.