national

/ˈnaʃ.ə.nəl/

//ˈnaʃ.ə.nəl// adj

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

"national" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“national” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #290. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#290
frequency rank, English
1,534
“N” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
5
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Pertaining to a nation or country, especially as a whole; affecting, shared by, or existing throughout all of a nation.

Corpus desk

Index EN-national · national · English

national · rank #290 · 11 variants · 5 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #290
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,534
  • PHOTO-FINISH men

Nearest frequency peer: men (-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.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “national”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “national” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

national vs nations
75% similar
national vs notional
88% similar
national vs nationals
89% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for national
PropertyValue
Headwordnational
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
IPA/ˈnaʃ.ə.nəl/
Letters8
Frequency rank#290
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “national”

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).nationallands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “men” (#289), “small” (#291), “head” (#288). Among 1,534 “N” headwords, “national” is #290. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around national (IPA /ˈnaʃ.ə.nəl/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #290 among 1,534 “N” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

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

  1. 1
    Pertaining to a nation or country, especially as a whole; affecting, shared by, or existing throughout all of a nation.
  2. 2
    Belonging to or characteristic of a specific nation or country, as opposed to others.
  3. 3
    Nationalistic; patriotic.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. a national assembly · on the front page of every national newspaper
  2. Import tariffs were raised for the national interest.

Etymology

From Middle French national, corresponding to nation + -al.

This word in other languages

nacional(Español)national(Français)national(Deutsch)nacional(Português)

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.

antional2naitonal2natinoal2natioanl2nationall1nationla2nationnal1natoinal2
Edit distance from "national"

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 "national"?
"national" is spelled N-A-T-I-O-N-A-L. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈnaʃ.ə.nəl/.
What does "national" mean?
As an adjective, "national" means: Pertaining to a nation or country, especially as a whole; affecting, shared by, or existing throughout all of a nation.
What words are commonly confused with "national"?
"national" is commonly confused with "nations", "notional", "nationals". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "national"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "national" is /ˈnaʃ.ə.nəl/. 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 "national"?
From Middle French national, corresponding to nation + -al. 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 "national", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

actually#302American#303children#318everyone#319

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

country11 variantsnothing11 variantsworking11 variantsthought11 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list