partisan
/ˈpɑː.tɪˌzæn/
"partisan" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“partisan” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,507 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #9,507
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An adherent to a party or faction.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | partisan |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɑː.tɪˌzæn/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #9,507 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “partisan” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for partisan is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpɑː.tɪˌzæn/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,507 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for partisan, with forms such as "aprtisan", "paritsan", and "parrtisan". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "Pattison", "partial", "Parisian", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French partisan, from Italian partigiano (“defender of a party”), from parte (“part”). Doublet of partigiano. Attested in English from the late 15th century in the noun sense of "party adherent", and in related adjective senses from the 16th century. T… The correct English form is partisan, spelled P-A-R-T-I-S-A-N.
Definition
- 1An adherent to a party or faction.
- 2A fervent, sometimes militant, supporter or proponent of a party, cause, faction, person, or idea.
- 3A member of a band of detached light, irregular troops acting behind occupying enemy lines in the ways of harassment or sabotage; a guerrilla fighter.
- 4The commander of a body of detached light troops engaged in making forays and harassing an enemy.
Etymology
From French partisan, from Italian partigiano (“defender of a party”), from parte (“part”). Doublet of partigiano. Attested in English from the late 15th century in the noun sense of "party adherent", and in related adjective senses from the 16th century. The "guerrilla fighter" sense influenced by Serbo-Croatian partizan, Russian партиза́н (partizán), from the same source. The sense of "guerrilla fighter" is from c. 1690. The adjective in the military sense dates from the early 18th century.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aprtisan,paritsan,parrtisan,partiasn,partisann,partisna,partissan,partsian,parttisan,patrisan,ppartisan,pratisan
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of partisan - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “partisan”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-A-R-T-I-S-A-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpɑː.tɪˌzæn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Pattison” - see the side-by-side comparison. partisan vs Pattison
- 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.