triumvirate
/tɹaɪˈʌmvəɹət/
"triumvirate" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“triumvirate” is an uncommon English word, ranked #50,284 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #50,284
- frequency rank, English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A council of three magistrates ruling jointly; specifically, the First Triumvirate (60 or 59 – 53 B.C.E.) or the Second Triumvirate (43 – 33 or 27 B.C.E.); the office of a triumvir (“one of such ma...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | triumvirate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /tɹaɪˈʌmvəɹət/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #50,284 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “triumvirate” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for triumvirate is 11 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /tɹaɪˈʌmvəɹət/. Corpus data places it at rank #50,284 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
triumvirate doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tréyes Proto-Italic *trēs Latin trium Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁-? Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós Proto-Italic *wiros Latin vir Latin triumvir Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Italic *-tus Latin -tus, -tūs Latin -ātus Latin t… The correct English form is triumvirate, spelled T-R-I-U-M-V-I-R-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1A council of three magistrates ruling jointly; specifically, the First Triumvirate (60 or 59 – 53 B.C.E.) or the Second Triumvirate (43 – 33 or 27 B.C.E.); the office of a triumvir (“one of such magistrates”), or of the three triumviri.
- 2Any group of three joint rulers.
- 3Any group of three people regarded as significant in some way; also (rare), a group of three things; a trio.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tréyes Proto-Italic *trēs Latin trium Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁-? Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós Proto-Italic *wiros Latin vir Latin triumvir Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Italic *-tus Latin -tus, -tūs Latin -ātus Latin triumvirātuslbor. ▲ Latin -ātusder. English -ate English triumvirate Learned borrowing from Latin triumvirātus (“triumvirate”) (see -ate (suffix forming nouns denoting offices or ranks)), itself derived from triumvir (“member of a triumvirate”) + -ātus (“-ate”, suffix forming nouns denoting offices or ranks, or groups of officials associated with such offices or ranks); and triumvir from trium (“of three”) (the genitive form of trēs (“three”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes (“three”)) + vir (“adult male human, man”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós (“man”)). By surface analysis, triumvir + -ate.
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 “triumvirate”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-R-I-U-M-V-I-R-A-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /tɹaɪˈʌmvəɹət/ (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.