pertinacity
"pertinacity" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pertinacity” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The state or characteristic of being pertinacious.
Corpus desk
Index EN-pertinacity · pertinacity · English
pertinacity · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" 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 | pertinacity |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “pertinacity” in English
Rare enough to double-check
pertinacity is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The state or characteristic of being pertinacious.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for pertinacity, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French pertinacité, from Old French pertinace (“obstinate, stubborn”). The correct English form is pertinacity, spelled P-E-R-T-I-N-A-C-I-T-Y.
Definition
- 1The state or characteristic of being pertinacious.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how pertinacity appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
1846, Edgar Allen Poe, The Black Cat With my aversion to this cat, however, its partiality for myself seemed to increase. It followed my footsteps with a pertinacity which it would be difficult to make the reader comprehend.
Again and again, however, and half a dozen other agains, with the inexorable pertinacity of a child intent upon some object important to itself, did he renew his efforts for admittance.
Etymology
From Middle French pertinacité, from Old French pertinace (“obstinate, stubborn”).
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.