sexagenarian
/ˌsɛksəd͡ʒɪˈnɛɹiən/
"sexagenarian" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sexagenarian” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Synonym of sixtysomething: a person between 60 and 69 years old.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sexagenarian · sexagenarian · English
sexagenarian · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sexagenarian |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌsɛksəd͡ʒɪˈnɛɹiən/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “sexagenarian” in English
Rare enough to double-check
sexagenarian is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌsɛksəd͡ʒɪˈnɛɹiən/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Synonym of sixtysomething: a person between 60 and 69 years old.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for sexagenarian, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin sexāgēnārius (“containing 60”) + -an (forming adjectives and representative nouns), either directly or via French sexagénaire, from Latin sexāgēnus (“60 each”) + -ārius (“-ary”), from sexāgintā (“six tens, 60”). The correct English form is sexagenarian, spelled S-E-X-A-G-E-N-A-R-I-A-N.
Definition
- 1Synonym of sixtysomething: a person between 60 and 69 years old.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how sexagenarian appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Luxury hotels and travel planners must be licking their lips at the prospect that a significant portion of those new sexagenarians will want the trip of a lifetime (and hang the kids' inheritance…).
Etymology
From Latin sexāgēnārius (“containing 60”) + -an (forming adjectives and representative nouns), either directly or via French sexagénaire, from Latin sexāgēnus (“60 each”) + -ārius (“-ary”), from sexāgintā (“six tens, 60”).
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.