precautionary
"precautionary" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“precautionary” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #29,422 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #29,422
- frequency rank, English
- 13
- letters
- 19
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of, pertaining to, or serving as a precaution.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | precautionary |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 13 |
| Frequency rank | #29,422 |
| Misspellings tracked | 19 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “precautionary” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for precautionary is 13 letters long, classified as an adjective. Corpus data places it at rank #29,422 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Of, pertaining to, or serving as a precaution.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 19 likely wrong-spelling variants for precautionary, with forms such as "percautionary", "pprecautionary", and "prceautionary". 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. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From precaution + -ary. The correct English form is precautionary, spelled P-R-E-C-A-U-T-I-O-N-A-R-Y.
Definition
- 1Of, pertaining to, or serving as a precaution.
Etymology
From precaution + -ary.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: percautionary,pprecautionary,prceautionary,preacutionary,precatuionary,precauitonary,precautinoary,precautioanry,precautionarry,precautionaryy,precautionayr,precautionnary,precautionray,precautoinary,precauttionary,preccautionary,precuationary,prrecautionary,rpecautionary
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of precautionary - 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 “precautionary”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-R-E-C-A-U-T-I-O-N-A-R-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.