psychopath
/ˈsaɪkoʊˌpæθ/
"psychopath" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“psychopath” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #19,179 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #19,179
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
- 17
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A person with a personality disorder indicated by a pattern of lying, cunning, manipulating, glibness, exploiting, heedlessness, arrogance, delusions of grandeur, carelessness, low self-control, di...
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | psychopath |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsaɪkoʊˌpæθ/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #19,179 |
| Misspellings tracked | 17 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “psychopath” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for psychopath is 10 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsaɪkoʊˌpæθ/. Corpus data places it at rank #19,179 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 17 likely wrong-spelling variants for psychopath, with forms such as "ppsychopath", "pscyhopath", and "pssychopath". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "psychopaths", "psychopathic", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From German psychopathisch, from Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ, “soul”) + πάθος (páthos, “suffering”). The correct English form is psychopath, spelled P-S-Y-C-H-O-P-A-T-H.
Definition
- 1A person with a personality disorder indicated by a pattern of lying, cunning, manipulating, glibness, exploiting, heedlessness, arrogance, delusions of grandeur, carelessness, low self-control, disregard for morality, lack of acceptance of responsibility, callousness, and lack of empathy and remorse. Such a person may be especially prone to violent and criminal offenses.
- 2A person with no moral conscience.
- 3A person who perpetrates especially gruesome or bizarre violent acts.
- 4A person diagnosed with antisocial or dissocial personality disorder.
- 5A person diagnosed with any mental disorder.
Etymology
From German psychopathisch, from Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ, “soul”) + πάθος (páthos, “suffering”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ppsychopath,pscyhopath,pssychopath,psycchopath,psychhopath,psychoapth,psychopaht,psychopathh,psychopatth,psychoppath,psychoptah,psychpoath,psycohpath,psyhcopath,psyychopath,pyschopath,spychopath
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of psychopath - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “psychopath”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-S-Y-C-H-O-P-A-T-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈsaɪkoʊˌpæθ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “psychopaths” - see the side-by-side comparison. psychopath vs psychopaths
- 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.