pornography
/pɔːˈnɒɡ.ɹə.fi/
"pornography" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pornography” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #11,941 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #11,941
- frequency rank, English
- 11
- letters
- 18
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The explicit literary or visual depiction of sexual subject matter; any display of material of an erotic nature.
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 | pornography |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɔːˈnɒɡ.ɹə.fi/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #11,941 |
| Misspellings tracked | 18 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pornography” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for pornography is 11 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /pɔːˈnɒɡ.ɹə.fi/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,941 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 18 likely wrong-spelling variants for pornography, with forms such as "oprnography", "ponrography", and "porngoraphy". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "pornographic", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French pornographie, from Ancient Greek πορνογράφος (pornográphos), from πορνεία (porneía, “fornication, prostitution”) + γράφω (gráphō, “I depict”). The correct English form is pornography, spelled P-O-R-N-O-G-R-A-P-H-Y.
Definition
- 1The explicit literary or visual depiction of sexual subject matter; any display of material of an erotic nature.
- 2The depiction of (non-sexual) subject matter so that it elicits feelings analogous to erotic pleasure; any such depiction.
- 3The graphic, detailed, often gratuitous depiction of something.
Etymology
From French pornographie, from Ancient Greek πορνογράφος (pornográphos), from πορνεία (porneía, “fornication, prostitution”) + γράφω (gráphō, “I depict”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: oprnography,ponrography,porngoraphy,pornnography,pornogarphy,pornoggraphy,pornograhpy,pornographhy,pornographyy,pornograpphy,pornograpyh,pornogrpahy,pornogrraphy,pornorgaphy,porongraphy,porrnography,ppornography,pronography
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pornography - 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.
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 "pornography"?
What does "pornography" mean?
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Using “pornography”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-O-R-N-O-G-R-A-P-H-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /pɔːˈnɒɡ.ɹə.fi/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “pornographic” - see the side-by-side comparison. pornography vs pornographic
- 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.