sexism
/ˈsɛksɪzm̩/noun
sexism is spelled S-E-X-I-S-M: 6 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 3.3 times per million words in written English, the 14,509th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, sexism means “The belief that people of one sex (or gender) are inherently different from those of another sex, and generally that one sex is superior to others” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of sexism is sexisms.
How many letters and syllables are in sexism?
| Letters | 6: S-E-X-I-S-M |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.3 times per million words; the 14,509th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is sexism?
Sexism appears 3.3 times per million words in written English, the 14,509th 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 sexism?
- /ˈsɛksɪzm̩/
Sexism has 3 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)-Vealhurl-sexism.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of sexism
- sexisms plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does sexism mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The belief that people of one sex (or gender) are inherently different from those of another sex, and generally that one sex is superior to others.
The notion that either gender is superior is sexism.
- 2
Discrimination against, or different treatment of, people on the basis of sex or gender, including the expectation that people should adhere to stereotypical social roles (gender roles) based on sex; (in particular, especially) discrimination against women.
The fact that there is only one woman in a management position in that company makes it easy to believe that sexism runs rampant there.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Sexism in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense discrimination based on sex or gender:
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 sexism come from?
From sex + -ism.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).