received wisdom
"received-wisdom" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“received wisdom” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 15
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Synonym of conventional wisdom.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | received wisdom |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 15 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “received wisdom” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
received wisdom is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Synonym of conventional wisdom.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for received wisdom, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is received wisdom, spelled R-E-C-E-I-V-E-D- -W-I-S-D-O-M.
Definition
- 1Synonym of conventional wisdom.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
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Using “received wisdom”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-E-C-E-I-V-E-D- -W-I-S-D-O-M - 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.