promiscuous
/pɹəˈmɪs.kju.əs/adjective
promiscuous is spelled P-R-O-M-I-S-C-U-O-U-S. The wrong spelling people search most is promiscous: about 110 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 22 of all searches for the word. Promiscuous is an adjective meaning “Made up of various disparate elements mixed together; of disorderly composition”.
How many letters and syllables are in promiscuous?
| Letters | 11: P-R-O-M-I-S-C-U-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 31,549th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, promiscous, about 110 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell promiscuous?
Promiscuous is spelled P-R-O-M-I-S-C-U-O-U-S. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 22 of the searches for promiscuous in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is promiscuous?
Promiscuous appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 31,549th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce promiscuous?
- /pɹəˈmɪs.kju.əs/
Promiscuous has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-promiscuous.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of promiscuous
- more promiscuous comparative
- most promiscuous superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does promiscuous mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Made up of various disparate elements mixed together; of disorderly composition.
- 2
Made without careful choice; indiscriminate.
A sail caught by a promiscuous wind.
- 3
Having many sexual partners, especially if indiscriminate in choice of sexual partners.
- 4
The mode in which an NIC gathers all network traffic instead of getting only the traffic intended for it.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Promiscuous in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | hétéroclite , indiscriminé , promiscue |
| German | zusammengewürfelt, bunt gemischt , wahllos, willkürlich, unüberlegt , freizügig |
| Spanish | promiscuo |
| Portuguese | promíscuo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does promiscuous come from?
From Latin prōmiscuus (“mixed, not separated”), from prō (“forth”) + misceō (“mix”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).