positivist
"positivist" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“positivist” is uncommon English (frequency #75,308 among 46,516 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #75,308
- frequency rank, English
- 46,516
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A believer in positivism.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | positivist |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #75,308 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “positivist” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
positivist is uncommon English at frequency #75,308 among 46,516 “P” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A believer in positivism.".
No misspelling variants are generated for positivist in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Perhaps borrowed from French positiviste. Equivalent to positive + -ist, after positivism. The correct English form is positivist, spelled P-O-S-I-T-I-V-I-S-T.
Definition
- 1A believer in positivism.
Etymology
Perhaps borrowed from French positiviste. Equivalent to positive + -ist, after positivism.
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); 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 “positivist”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-O-S-I-T-I-V-I-S-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.