pretension
"pretension" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pretension” is uncommon English (frequency #63,906 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #63,906
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A claim or aspiration to a particular status or quality.
Corpus desk
Index EN-pretension · pretension · English
pretension · rank #63,906 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #63,906
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH prefab
Nearest frequency peer: prefab (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “pretension”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- posada
posada
36,098 corpus weight
- Prager
Prager
36,097 corpus weight
- prefab
prefab
36,096 corpus weight
- pretension
pretension
36,095 corpus weight
- prissy
prissy
36,094 corpus weight
- Prolog
Prolog
36,093 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “pretension” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pretension |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #63,906 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “pretension” in English
Rare enough to double-check
pretension is uncommon English at frequency #63,906 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
pretension has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English pretencioun, pretensioun, from Medieval Latin prētēnsiō. The correct English form is pretension, spelled P-R-E-T-E-N-S-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1A claim or aspiration to a particular status or quality.
- 2Pretentiousness.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how pretension appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
As a foreign stamp gazette it is nowhere. An article on Stamp Collecting, by J. E. Gray, “reprinted from one of his books,” and a catalogue of stamps constitute its sole attraction. We are surprised to find such sounding pretentions so poorly supported.
Etymology
From Middle English pretencioun, pretensioun, from Medieval Latin prētēnsiō.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "pretension", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).