politician

/ˌpɒl.ɪˈtɪʃ.ən/

//ˌpɒl.ɪˈtɪʃ.ən// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"politician" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“politician” has 14 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #5,533. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#5,533
frequency rank, English
4,417
“P” headwords
14
tracked misspellings
2
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - One engaged in politics, especially an elected or appointed government official.

Corpus desk

Index EN-politician · politician · English

politician · rank #5,533 · 14 variants · 2 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #5,533
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 2 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 14 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,417
  • PHOTO-FINISH planes

Nearest frequency peer: planes (-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.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “politician”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “politician” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

politician vs politicians
91% similar
politician vs political
80% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for politician
PropertyValue
Headwordpolitician
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˌpɒl.ɪˈtɪʃ.ən/
Letters10
Frequency rank#5,533
Misspellings tracked14
Confusable pairs2
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “politician”

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).politicianlands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “planes” (#5,532), “preliminary” (#5,534), “pics” (#5,531). Among 4,417 “P” headwords, “politician” is #5,533. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 14 spelling variants around politician (IPA /ˌpɒl.ɪˈtɪʃ.ən/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #5,533 among 4,417 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for politician, with forms such as "oplitician", "ploitician", and "poiltician". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "politicians", "political", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: From politic + -ian. The correct English form is politician, spelled P-O-L-I-T-I-C-I-A-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    One engaged in politics, especially an elected or appointed government official.
  2. 2
    Specifically, one who regards elected political office as a career.
  3. 3
    A politically active or interested person.
  4. 4
    A sly or ingratiating person.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how politician appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Politicians should serve the country's interest.
  2. WHEN the mental growth of a man in public life ceases, he ought, for the sake of the community, to retire. Most of our mediocre or unsuccessful Presidents were slipping downhill mentally before they took office. Lincoln, Cleveland, Roosevelt, Wilson, and Coolidge broadened and strengthened as the years went by. By the same token, some men, unused to polit…

Etymology

From politic + -ian.

Synonyms

politicianpolitico

This word in other languages

político(Español)politique(Français)Politiker(Deutsch)política(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • oplitician
  • ploitician
  • poiltician
  • poliitcian
  • politciian
  • politicain
  • politiccian
  • politiciann
  • politicina
  • politiican
  • polittician
  • pollitician
  • poltiician
  • ppolitician

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of politician - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

oplitician2ploitician2poiltician2poliitcian2politciian2politicain2politiccian1politiciann1
Edit distance from "politician"

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

How do you spell "politician"?
"politician" is spelled P-O-L-I-T-I-C-I-A-N. The IPA pronunciation is /ˌpɒl.ɪˈtɪʃ.ən/.
What does "politician" mean?
As a noun, "politician" means: One engaged in politics, especially an elected or appointed government official.
What words are commonly confused with "politician"?
"politician" is commonly confused with "politicians", "political". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "politician"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "politician" is /ˌpɒl.ɪˈtɪʃ.ən/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "politician"?
From politic + -ian. See the full etymology section above for more details.
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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "politician", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

presidency#5,536indigenous#5,506travelling#5,561adventures#5,570

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (14 here; floor ≥5).

strictly14 variantsgentleman14 variantsconnecting14 variantscriminals14 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list