wildcat
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
7 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "wildcat", 7-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "wildcat" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "wildcat" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
wildcat is aEnglishnoun. It means: A cat that lives in the wilderness, specifically: Pronounced /ˈwaɪldˌkæt/. Often confused with wildest and wildcard.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wildcat |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈwaɪldˌkæt/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #27,030 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for wildcat is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈwaɪldˌkæt/. Corpus data places it at rank #27,030 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for wildcat, with forms such as "iwldcat", "widlcat", and "wilcdat". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "wildest", "wildcard", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English wyld cat, wylde cat (in the plural as wild cattes, wylde catis, wyle cattes), equivalent to wild + cat. Cognate with Middle Low German wiltkatte, German Wildkatze, Swedish vildkatt. Its adjectival senses were originally American and deri… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is wildcat, spelled W-I-L-D-C-A-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A cat that lives in the wilderness, specifically:
- 2A cat that lives in the wilderness, specifically:
- 3A cat that lives in the wilderness, specifically:
- 4A cat that lives in the wilderness, specifically:
- 5A person who acts like a wildcat, (usually) a violent and easily-angered person or a sexually vigorous one.
- 6An offensive formation with an unbalanced line and a snap directly to the running back rather than the quarterback.
- 7A wheel that can be adjusted so as to revolve either with or on the shaft of a capstan.
- 8Clipping of wildcat cartridge.
- 9Clipping of wildcat strike (“a strike undertaken without authorization from the relevant trade union”).
- 10Clipping of wildcat money (“notes issued by a wildcat bank”).
Etymology
From Middle English wyld cat, wylde cat (in the plural as wild cattes, wylde catis, wyle cattes), equivalent to wild + cat. Cognate with Middle Low German wiltkatte, German Wildkatze, Swedish vildkatt. Its adjectival senses were originally American and derived from the "wildcat banks" of Michigan, following its elevation to statehood in 1837. Two laws—one easing the requirements for establishing a new bank and another occasioned by the Panic of 1837 that removed the need for payment in specie—led to the creation and collapse of around 50 banks within two years. The term is apocryphally derived from a wildcat supposedly featured on the currency printed by one of these banks, but more probably derived from the remote locations "where the wildcats roamed" chosen by these banks to avoid oversight and minimize redemption of notes.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: iwldcat,widlcat,wilcdat,wildact,wildcatt,wildccat,wildcta,wilddcat,willdcat,wlidcat,wwildcat
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for wildcat
Misspelling Variants of "wildcat"
Frequency rank: #27,030 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter W in our English index: