obiter dictum
/ˌəʊbɪtə ˈdɪktəm/
"obiter-dictum" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“obiter dictum” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An incidental remark; especially (law) a statement or remark in a court's judgment that is not essential to the disposition of the case.
Corpus desk
Index EN-obiter-dictum · obiter dictum · English
obiter dictum · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "O" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | obiter dictum |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌəʊbɪtə ˈdɪktəm/ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “obiter dictum” in English
Rare enough to double-check
obiter dictum is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌəʊbɪtə ˈdɪktəm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An incidental remark; especially (law) a statement or remark in a court's judgment that is not essential to the disposition of the case.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for obiter dictum, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin obiter dictum (“something said by the way”). The correct English form is obiter dictum, spelled O-B-I-T-E-R- -D-I-C-T-U-M.
Definition
- 1An incidental remark; especially (law) a statement or remark in a court's judgment that is not essential to the disposition of the case.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how obiter dictum appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Casual obiter dicta by men of accepted godliness belonged to a different category from the ecstatic claims to immediate revelation made by obscure persons who thrust themselves into the limelight […].
However, McHugh J noted obiter dicta that if the meaning of the word was construed at that level of abstraction today, ‘it would deny the Parliament of the Commonwealth the power to legislate for same sex marriages[…]’.
Etymology
From Latin obiter dictum (“something said by the way”).
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.