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predestination

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

14 characters

Language

English

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "predestination", 14-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "predestination" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "predestination" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

predestination is aEnglishnoun. It means: The doctrine that everything has been foreordained by God or by fate. Pronounced /pɹi.dɛs.tɪˈneɪ.ʃən/.

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Key facts for predestination
PropertyValue
Headwordpredestination
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/pɹi.dɛs.tɪˈneɪ.ʃən/
Letters14
Frequency rank#52,566
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of predestination in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for predestination is 14 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /pɹi.dɛs.tɪˈneɪ.ʃən/. Corpus data places it at rank #52,566 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.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for predestination in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English predestinacion, from Old French predestination, from Late Latin praedēstinātiō. By surface analysis, predestine + -ation. Displaced native Old English foreteohhung. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is predestination, spelled P-R-E-D-E-S-T-I-N-A-T-I-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    The doctrine that everything has been foreordained by God or by fate.
  2. 2
    The doctrine that certain people have been elected for salvation, and sometimes also that others are destined for reprobation.
  3. 3
    Destiny or fate.

Etymology

From Middle English predestinacion, from Old French predestination, from Late Latin praedēstinātiō. By surface analysis, predestine + -ation. Displaced native Old English foreteohhung.

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #52,566 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "predestination"?
"predestination" is spelled P-R-E-D-E-S-T-I-N-A-T-I-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is /pɹi.dɛs.tɪˈneɪ.ʃən/.
What does "predestination" mean?
As a noun, "predestination" means: The doctrine that everything has been foreordained by God or by fate.
How do you pronounce "predestination"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "predestination" is /pɹi.dɛs.tɪˈneɪ.ʃən/. 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 "predestination"?
From Middle English predestinacion, from Old French predestination, from Late Latin praedēstinātiō. By surface analysis, predestine + -ation. Displaced native Old English foreteohhung. See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Nearby English words

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.