wishful thinking
"wishful-thinking" is a 15-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wishful thinking” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The formation of beliefs based on an outcome that aligns with one's desires or hopes, while disregarding evidence, rationality, or reality.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wishful thinking |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “wishful thinking” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
wishful thinking is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
wishful thinking has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is wishful thinking, spelled W-I-S-H-F-U-L- -T-H-I-N-K-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1The formation of beliefs based on an outcome that aligns with one's desires or hopes, while disregarding evidence, rationality, or reality.
- 2Decision making based on self-delusion.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “wishful thinking”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-I-S-H-F-U-L- -T-H-I-N-K-I-N-G - 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.