oppositional
"oppositional" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“oppositional” is uncommon English (frequency #54,365 among 1,431 “O” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,365
- frequency rank, English
- 1,431
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of, pertaining to, or exhibiting opposition.
Corpus desk
Index EN-oppositional · oppositional · English
oppositional · rank #54,365 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #54,365
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,431
- PHOTO-FINISH odorless
Nearest frequency peer: odorless (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “oppositional”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- NSE
NSE
45,640 corpus weight
- nyssa
nyssa
45,639 corpus weight
- odorless
odorless
45,637 corpus weight
- oppositional
oppositional
45,636 corpus weight
- ordain
ordain
45,634 corpus weight
- outwit
outwit
45,632 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “oppositional” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | oppositional |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #54,365 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “oppositional” in English
Rare enough to double-check
oppositional is uncommon English at frequency #54,365 among 1,431 “O” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Of, pertaining to, or exhibiting opposition.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for oppositional, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From opposition + -al. The correct English form is oppositional, spelled O-P-P-O-S-I-T-I-O-N-A-L.
Definition
- 1Of, pertaining to, or exhibiting opposition.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how oppositional appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
And he has brought to oppositional politics the same energy and aggression that characterized his chess, attacking Mr. Putin and the Kremlin — or the regime, as he repeatedly calls it — with language rarely spoken so bluntly in Russia.
Etymology
From opposition + -al.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "oppositional", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).