recusant
/ˈɹɛkjʊzənt/
"recusant" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“recusant” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Someone refusing to attend Church of England services, between the 16th and early 19th centuries, whether a Protestant dissident or a Roman Catholic.
Corpus desk
Index EN-recusant · recusant · English
recusant · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "R" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | recusant |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɹɛkjʊzənt/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “recusant” in English
Rare enough to double-check
recusant is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈɹɛkjʊzənt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for recusant, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin recūsans, recūsāntis, from recūsō (“I refuse, decline; I object to; I protest”). See recuse. The correct English form is recusant, spelled R-E-C-U-S-A-N-T.
Definition
- 1Someone refusing to attend Church of England services, between the 16th and early 19th centuries, whether a Protestant dissident or a Roman Catholic.
- 2Anyone refusing to submit to authority or regulation.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how recusant appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Near-synonyms: (all sometimes synonymous) Dissenter, Nonconformist, Free Churchman; autem cackler (archaic cant)
Near-synonyms: refuser, defier, dissenter, objector, protester, iconoclast, maverick, nonconformist, rebel, refusenik, renegade
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin recūsans, recūsāntis, from recūsō (“I refuse, decline; I object to; I protest”). See recuse.
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.