sellout
/ˈsɛlˌaʊt/noun
sellout is a noun meaning “An action in which principles are compromised for personal gain” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled S-E-L-L-O-U-T and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 1 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of sellout is sellouts.
What does sellout mean?
noun
- 1
informalAn action in which principles are compromised for personal gain.
- 2
informalA person who sells out, who compromises their principles for financial gain or some other advantage.
The rock star used to be hardcore, but now he's just a sellout.
- 3
The selling of an entire stock of something, especially tickets for an entertainment or sports event.
I performed in front of a sellout crowd.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce sellout?
- /ˈsɛlˌaʊt/
Sellout has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-sellout.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of sellout
- sellouts plural
- sell-out
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is sellout?
Sellout appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,393rd 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).
Words people confuse with sellout
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: sell-out (one word or two).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Sellout in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a person who compromises his or her principles:
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 sellout come from?
A deverbal from sell out.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).