sexual orientation
"sexual-orientation" is a 17-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sexual orientation” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 18
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The tendencies of a person's sexual attraction, considered as a whole.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sexual-orientation · sexual orientation · English
sexual orientation · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 18 letters
- VOW-9 9 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 | sexual orientation |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 18 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “sexual orientation” in English
Rare enough to double-check
sexual orientation is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
sexual orientation has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Coined by New Zealand American psychologist, sexologist, and college professor John Money. The correct English form is sexual orientation, spelled S-E-X-U-A-L- -O-R-I-E-N-T-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1The tendencies of a person's sexual attraction, considered as a whole.
- 2The process of orientation with regard to a sexual goal or potential partner.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how sexual orientation appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
There are more sexual orientations than simple homosexuality and heterosexuality.
Etymology
Coined by New Zealand American psychologist, sexologist, and college professor John Money.
Synonyms
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.