supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
/ˌsuːpəˌkælɨˌfɹæd͡ʒɨˌlɪstɪkˌɛkspɪˌælɨˈdəʊʃəs/
"supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" is a 34-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as an adjective - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 34
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Fantastic, very wonderful.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | supercalifragilisticexpialidocious |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˌsuːpəˌkælɨˌfɹæd͡ʒɨˌlɪstɪkˌɛkspɪˌælɨˈdəʊʃəs/ |
| Letters | 34 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is 34 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌsuːpəˌkælɨˌfɹæd͡ʒɨˌlɪstɪkˌɛkspɪˌælɨˈdəʊʃəs/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Fantastic, very wonderful.".
supercalifragilisticexpialidocious has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: First attested (as supercaliflawjalisticexpialadoshus) in a 1931 Syracuse University Daily Orange column, which states that the word “implies all that is grand, great, glorious, splendid, superb, wonderful”. In this spelling, it was made famous by its use i… The correct English form is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, spelled S-U-P-E-R-C-A-L-I-F-R-A-G-I-L-I-S-T-I-C-E-X-P-I-A-L-I-D-O-C-I-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Fantastic, very wonderful.
Etymology
First attested (as supercaliflawjalisticexpialadoshus) in a 1931 Syracuse University Daily Orange column, which states that the word “implies all that is grand, great, glorious, splendid, superb, wonderful”. In this spelling, it was made famous by its use in a song of the same title in the movie Mary Poppins (1964), by songwriters Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman; they wrote in 1998: When we were little boys in the mid-1930s, we went to a summer camp in the Adirondack Mountains, where we were introduced to a very long word that had been passed down in many variations through many generations of kids. […] The word as we first heard it was super-cadja-flawjalistic-espealedojus. Apparently a fanciful formation on super (compare super-), -ic, and -ious; various rationalizations of the other elements have been offered, but none supported by any evidence. One by American linguist Richard Lederer in his book Crazy English (1989) is super- (“above”) + cali- (“beauty”) + fragilistic- (“delicate”) + expiali- (“to atone”) + -docious (“educable”), the sum of which equals “atoning for extreme and delicate beauty [while being] highly educable”. This etymology is based on calli-, fragile, expiate, and docious (“amenable to order”) or docity (“quickness of comprehension”), from Latin doceō (“to teach”). For the -docious ending, compare braggadocious (first attested in American English, in 1853), and more distantly, perhaps bodacious. The element -cali- may have been taken from California (especially in view of -califlawja- in the 1931 version). For -listic, compare (un)realistic.
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
How do you spell "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"?
What does "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" mean?
How do you pronounce "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"?
What is the origin of the word "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-U-P-E-R-C-A-L-I-F-R-A-G-I-L-I-S-T-I-C-E-X-P-I-A-L-I-D-O-C-I-O-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌsuːpəˌkælɨˌfɹæd͡ʒɨˌlɪstɪkˌɛkspɪˌælɨˈdəʊʃəs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.