state of affairs
"state-of-affairs" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“state of affairs” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A specific situation; a set of circumstances.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | state of affairs |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “state of affairs” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
state of affairs is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A specific situation; a set of circumstances.".
Zero misspellings are on record for state of affairs in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is state of affairs, spelled S-T-A-T-E- -O-F- -A-F-F-A-I-R-S.
Definition
- 1A specific situation; a set of circumstances.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “state of affairs”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-T-A-T-E- -O-F- -A-F-F-A-I-R-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.