surreptitious
/ˌsʌɹɪpˈtɪʃəs/
"surreptitious" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“surreptitious” is an uncommon English word, ranked #68,675 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #68,675
- frequency rank, English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Stealthy, furtive, well hidden, covert (especially movements).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | surreptitious |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˌsʌɹɪpˈtɪʃəs/ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Frequency rank | #68,675 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “surreptitious” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for surreptitious is 13 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌsʌɹɪpˈtɪʃəs/. Corpus data places it at rank #68,675 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Stealthy, furtive, well hidden, covert (especially movements).".
Zero misspellings are on record for surreptitious in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin surrēptīcius (“furtive, clandestine”), from surrēpō (“to creep along”). The correct English form is surreptitious, spelled S-U-R-R-E-P-T-I-T-I-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Stealthy, furtive, well hidden, covert (especially movements).
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin surrēptīcius (“furtive, clandestine”), from surrēpō (“to creep along”).
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); 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
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Using “surreptitious”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-U-R-R-E-P-T-I-T-I-O-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌsʌɹɪpˈtɪʃəs/ (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.