national
/ˈnaʃ.ə.nəl/
"national" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“national” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #290 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #290
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Pertaining to a nation or country, especially as a whole; affecting, shared by, or existing throughout all of a nation.
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 | national |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈnaʃ.ə.nəl/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #290 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “national” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for national is 8 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈnaʃ.ə.nəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #290 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for national, with forms such as "antional", "naitonal", and "natinoal". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "nations", "notional", "nationals", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French national, corresponding to nation + -al. The correct English form is national, spelled N-A-T-I-O-N-A-L.
Definition
- 1Pertaining to a nation or country, especially as a whole; affecting, shared by, or existing throughout all of a nation.
- 2Belonging to or characteristic of a specific nation or country, as opposed to others.
- 3Nationalistic; patriotic.
Etymology
From Middle French national, corresponding to nation + -al.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: antional,naitonal,natinoal,natioanl,nationall,nationla,nationnal,natoinal,nattional,nnational,ntaional
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of national - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “national”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is N-A-T-I-O-N-A-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈnaʃ.ə.nəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “nations” - see the side-by-side comparison. national vs nations
- 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.