totalitarianism
"totalitarianism" is a 15-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“totalitarianism” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #36,377 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #36,377
- frequency rank, English
- 15
- letters
- 22
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A system of government in which the people have virtually no authority and the state wields absolute control, for example, a dictatorship.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | totalitarianism |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 15 |
| Frequency rank | #36,377 |
| Misspellings tracked | 22 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “totalitarianism” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for totalitarianism is 15 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #36,377 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A system of government in which the people have virtually no authority and the state wields absolute control, for example, a dictatorship.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 22 likely wrong-spelling variants for totalitarianism, with forms such as "ottalitarianism", "toatlitarianism", and "totailtarianism". 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. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: 1938, from totalitarian + -ism, modeled after Italian totalitarismo (1923, by Giovanni Amendola) and German terms such as Totalstaat (1927, The Concept of the Political, by Carl Schmitt). The correct English form is totalitarianism, spelled T-O-T-A-L-I-T-A-R-I-A-N-I-S-M.
Definition
- 1A system of government in which the people have virtually no authority and the state wields absolute control, for example, a dictatorship.
Etymology
1938, from totalitarian + -ism, modeled after Italian totalitarismo (1923, by Giovanni Amendola) and German terms such as Totalstaat (1927, The Concept of the Political, by Carl Schmitt).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ottalitarianism,toatlitarianism,totailtarianism,totaliatrianism,totalitairanism,totalitarainism,totalitariainsm,totalitarianims,totalitarianismm,totalitarianissm,totalitariannism,totalitariansim,totalitarinaism,totalitarrianism,totalitraianism,totalittarianism,totallitarianism,totaltiarianism,totlaitarianism,tottalitarianism,ttoalitarianism,ttotalitarianism
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of totalitarianism - 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
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Using “totalitarianism”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-O-T-A-L-I-T-A-R-I-A-N-I-S-M - 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.