sadomasochism
/seɪdəʊˈmæsəkɪzəm/
"sadomasochism" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sadomasochism” is uncommon English (frequency #93,110 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #93,110
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The practices of sadism and masochism collectively, usually in reference to consensual practices within the BDSM community.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sadomasochism |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /seɪdəʊˈmæsəkɪzəm/ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Frequency rank | #93,110 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sadomasochism” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
sadomasochism is uncommon English at frequency #93,110 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /seɪdəʊˈmæsəkɪzəm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
sadomasochism has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From sado- + masochism. The correct English form is sadomasochism, spelled S-A-D-O-M-A-S-O-C-H-I-S-M.
Definition
- 1The practices of sadism and masochism collectively, usually in reference to consensual practices within the BDSM community.
- 2Sadism and masochism: the (often sexual) enjoyment by one person of both inflicting and receiving pain.
Etymology
From sado- + masochism.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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 “sadomasochism”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-A-D-O-M-A-S-O-C-H-I-S-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /seɪdəʊˈmæsəkɪzəm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.