sortilege
/ˈsɔːtɪlɪd͡ʒ/
"sortilege" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sortilege” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Witchcraft, magic, especially as a means of making decisions or predictions.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sortilege · sortilege · English
sortilege · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 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 | sortilege |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɔːtɪlɪd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “sortilege” in English
Rare enough to double-check
sortilege is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈsɔːtɪlɪd͡ʒ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Witchcraft, magic, especially as a means of making decisions or predictions.".
Zero misspellings are on record for sortilege in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old French sortilège, from Medieval Latin sortilegium (“witchcraft”), from Latin sortilegus (“sorcerer, diviner”), from sors (“fate”) + legere (“choose”). The correct English form is sortilege, spelled S-O-R-T-I-L-E-G-E.
Definition
- 1Witchcraft, magic, especially as a means of making decisions or predictions.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sortilege appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
We have therefore summoned to our presence a Jewish woman, by name Rebecca, daughter of Isaac of York — a woman infamous for sortileges and for witcheries.
Orthodox believers […] were less happy about using sortilege to coerce God into taking decisions on their behalf.
Etymology
From Old French sortilège, from Medieval Latin sortilegium (“witchcraft”), from Latin sortilegus (“sorcerer, diviner”), from sors (“fate”) + legere (“choose”).
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.