samizdat
sa·miz·dat/ˈsæmɪzdæt/noun
samizdat is spelled S-A-M-I-Z-D-A-T: 8 letters and 3 syllables (sa·miz·dat). It appears about once in every 15 million words in written English, the 118,441st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, samizdat means “The secret copying and sharing of illegal publications, chiefly in the Soviet Union; underground publishing and its publications” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of samizdat is samizdats or samizdaty.
How many letters and syllables are in samizdat?
| Letters | 8: S-A-M-I-Z-D-A-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: sa·miz·dat |
| In writing | about once in every 15 million words; the 118,441st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is samizdat?
Samizdat appears about once in every 15 million words in written English, the 118,441st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce samizdat?
- UK /ˈsæmɪzdæt/
- UK /səmɪzˈdæt/
Samizdat has 3 syllables, split sa·miz·dat in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-samizdat.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of samizdat
- samizdats plural
- samizdaty plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does samizdat mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The secret copying and sharing of illegal publications, chiefly in the Soviet Union; underground publishing and its publications.
- 2
A samizdat publication.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Samizdat in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense underground publishing:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does samizdat come from?
Borrowed from Russian самизда́т (samizdát, “self-publishing”), from сам (sam, “self”) + изда́т (izdát), an abbreviation of изда́тельство (izdátelʹstvo, “publishing house, publishing”) (compare Russian Госизда́т (Gosizdát, “State Publisher”)).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).