spectacular
/spɛkˈtæk.jʊ.lə/
"spectacular" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“spectacular” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,523 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #6,523
- frequency rank, English
- 11
- letters
- 17
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Amazing or worthy of special notice.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | spectacular |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /spɛkˈtæk.jʊ.lə/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #6,523 |
| Misspellings tracked | 17 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “spectacular” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for spectacular is 11 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /spɛkˈtæk.jʊ.lə/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,523 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 17 likely wrong-spelling variants for spectacular, with forms such as "psectacular", "sepctacular", and "spcetacular". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "spectacularly", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin spectaculum (“a sight, show”) + -ar. The correct English form is spectacular, spelled S-P-E-C-T-A-C-U-L-A-R.
Definition
- 1Amazing or worthy of special notice.
- 2Related to, or having the character of, a spectacle or entertainment.
- 3Relating to spectacles, or glasses for the eyes.
Etymology
From Latin spectaculum (“a sight, show”) + -ar.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: psectacular,sepctacular,spcetacular,specatcular,specctacular,spectaccular,spectacluar,spectacualr,spectacularr,spectacullar,spectaculra,spectauclar,spectcaular,specttacular,spetcacular,sppectacular,sspectacular
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of spectacular - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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
How do you spell "spectacular"?
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Using “spectacular”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-P-E-C-T-A-C-U-L-A-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /spɛkˈtæk.jʊ.lə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “spectacularly” - see the side-by-side comparison. spectacular vs spectacularly
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.