pang of conscience

noun

"pang-of-conscience" is a 16-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“pang of conscience” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
18
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A feeling of shame, guilt, or embarrassment, resulting from behavior which one regrets.

Key facts for pang of conscience
PropertyValue
Headwordpang of conscience
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters18
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “pang of conscience” sits in English frequency

pang of conscience falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

pang of conscience is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A feeling of shame, guilt, or embarrassment, resulting from behavior which one regrets.".

pang of conscience doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is pang of conscience, spelled P-A-N-G- -O-F- -C-O-N-S-C-I-E-N-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    A feeling of shame, guilt, or embarrassment, resulting from behavior which one regrets.

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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "pang of conscience"?
"pang of conscience" is spelled P-A-N-G- -O-F- -C-O-N-S-C-I-E-N-C-E.
What does "pang of conscience" mean?
As a noun, "pang of conscience" means: A feeling of shame, guilt, or embarrassment, resulting from behavior which one regrets.
What language does "pang of conscience" come from?
"pang of conscience" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Using “pang of conscience”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is P-A-N-G- -O-F- -C-O-N-S-C-I-E-N-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list