sensationalist
"sensationalist" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sensationalist” is uncommon English (frequency #55,726 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #55,726
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Sensationalistic; tending to sensationalize; characterized by sensationalism (the use of exaggerated or lurid material in order to gain public attention).
Corpus desk
Index EN-sensationalist · sensationalist · English
sensationalist · rank #55,726 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #55,726
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH scapula
Nearest frequency peer: scapula (-5 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “sensationalist”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- scabbard
scabbard
44,281 corpus weight
- scapula
scapula
44,280 corpus weight
- sensational…
sensationalist
44,275 corpus weight
- shand
shand
44,270 corpus weight
- shew
shew
44,268 corpus weight
- sidearm
sidearm
44,265 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “sensationalist” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sensationalist |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 14 |
| Frequency rank | #55,726 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “sensationalist” in English
Rare enough to double-check
sensationalist is uncommon English at frequency #55,726 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Sensationalistic; tending to sensationalize; characterized by sensationalism (the use of exaggerated or lurid material in order to gain public attention).".
No generated misspelling entries exist for sensationalist in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From sensational + -ist. The correct English form is sensationalist, spelled S-E-N-S-A-T-I-O-N-A-L-I-S-T.
Definition
- 1Sensationalistic; tending to sensationalize; characterized by sensationalism (the use of exaggerated or lurid material in order to gain public attention).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sensationalist appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Near-synonym: clickbait
It was a sensationalist newspaper, even by tabloid standards.
Etymology
From sensational + -ist.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sensationalist", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 14 letters (nearest by frequency rank).