officiant
/əˈfɪʃi.ənt/
"officiant" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“officiant” is uncommon English (frequency #77,973 among 15,494 “O” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #77,973
- frequency rank, English
- 15,494
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A person who officiates at a religious ceremony (in Christianity, at any ceremnoy other than the Eucharist).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | officiant |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /əˈfɪʃi.ənt/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #77,973 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “officiant” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
officiant is uncommon English at frequency #77,973 among 15,494 “O” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /əˈfɪʃi.ənt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for officiant in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Medieval Latin officiāns, present participle of officiō, officiāre (“to perform a duty or service”) (not to be confused with Classical officiō, officere (“to obstruct, hinder”)), a denominal verb from officium (“duty, service”). The correct English form is officiant, spelled O-F-F-I-C-I-A-N-T.
Definition
- 1A person who officiates at a religious ceremony (in Christianity, at any ceremnoy other than the Eucharist).
- 2A person who officiates at a civil (non-religious) wedding ceremony.
Etymology
From Medieval Latin officiāns, present participle of officiō, officiāre (“to perform a duty or service”) (not to be confused with Classical officiō, officere (“to obstruct, hinder”)), a denominal verb from officium (“duty, service”).
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 “officiant”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is O-F-F-I-C-I-A-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈfɪʃi.ənt/ (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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.