nonplussed
/nɒnˈplʌst/
"nonplussed" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“nonplussed” is an uncommon English word, ranked #82,598 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #82,598
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Unsure how to act or respond; bewildered, perplexed.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nonplussed |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /nɒnˈplʌst/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #82,598 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “nonplussed” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for nonplussed is 10 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /nɒnˈplʌst/. Corpus data places it at rank #82,598 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.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for nonplussed, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From nonplus (“state of bewilderment or perplexity”, noun) or nonplus (“to bewilder or perplex (someone)”, verb) + -ed (suffix forming adjectives, and the past tense and past participle forms of verbs). Nonplus (noun) is derived from Latin nōn plūs (“no fur… The correct English form is nonplussed, spelled N-O-N-P-L-U-S-S-E-D.
Definition
- 1Unsure how to act or respond; bewildered, perplexed.
- 2Unaffected, unfazed; unimpressed.
Etymology
From nonplus (“state of bewilderment or perplexity”, noun) or nonplus (“to bewilder or perplex (someone)”, verb) + -ed (suffix forming adjectives, and the past tense and past participle forms of verbs). Nonplus (noun) is derived from Latin nōn plūs (“no further, no more”), from nōn (“not”) + plūs (“additionally, more; further”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”)). The etymological sense is similar to being left speechless as a result of confusion: the nonplussed person can say or do “no more”. Adjective sense 2 (“unaffected”) is probably from a misinterpretation of the first element of the word as the prefix non- meaning “not”.
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 “nonplussed”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is N-O-N-P-L-U-S-S-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /nɒnˈplʌst/ (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.