sadism
/ˈseɪdɪzəm/
"sadism" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sadism” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #49,026 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #49,026
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The enjoyment of inflicting pain or humiliation without pity.
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 | sadism |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈseɪdɪzəm/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #49,026 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sadism” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sadism is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈseɪdɪzəm/. Corpus data places it at rank #49,026 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for sadism, with forms such as "asdism", "saddism", and "sadims". 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 9 confusable-pair relationships, "sais", "sodium", "sexism", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French sadisme and German Sadismus. Named after the Marquis de Sade, famed for his libertine writings depicting the pleasure of inflicting pain to others. The word for "sadism" (sadisme) was coined or acknowledged in the 1834 posthumous reprint of Fren… The correct English form is sadism, spelled S-A-D-I-S-M.
Definition
- 1The enjoyment of inflicting pain or humiliation without pity.
- 2Achievement of sexual gratification by inflicting pain or humiliation on others, or watching pain or humiliation inflicted on others.
- 3Deliberate or wanton cruelty, either mental or physical, to other people, or to animals, regardless of whether for (sexual) gratification.
Etymology
From French sadisme and German Sadismus. Named after the Marquis de Sade, famed for his libertine writings depicting the pleasure of inflicting pain to others. The word for "sadism" (sadisme) was coined or acknowledged in the 1834 posthumous reprint of French lexicographer Boiste's Dictionnaire universel de la langue française; it is reused along with "sadist" (sadique) in 1862 by French critic Sainte-Beuve in his commentary of Flaubert's novel Salammbô; it is reused (possibly independently) in 1886 by Austrian psychiatrist Krafft-Ebing in Psychopathia Sexualis which popularized it; it is directly reused in 1905 by Freud in Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality which definitively established the word.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: asdism,saddism,sadims,sadismm,sadissm,sadsim,saidsm,sdaism,ssadism
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sadism - 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 “sadism”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-A-D-I-S-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈseɪdɪzəm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “sais” - see the side-by-side comparison. sadism vs sais
- 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.