spondent

Spondent is a rarely attested English word that is generally considered either a misspelling or an archaic variant of respondent. In modern usage, the standard term for a person who answers a question, survey, or inquiry is respondent; in legal contexts, respondent also refers to a party against whom a petition is brought.

The precise etymology of spondent is not well documented in contemporary dictionaries. It is typically treated as a historical or mistaken form related to respondent, sharing the same sense of someone who responds. Some discussions note that spondent appears in old or poorly edited texts, but there is little consensus on a distinct etymology or on whether it once carried a separate meaning. As a result, spondent is not regarded as a separate lexical item in modern English lexicography.

In current editing and scholarly practice, spondent is usually corrected to respondent when the intended sense is “one who responds.” If the manuscript or edition explicitly discusses historical spellings or manuscript variants, spondent may be left as a historical form with a note explaining its status. Readers should be aware that encountering spondent typically signals either a typographical error or an archaic usage rather than a distinct modern term.

See also: respond, respondent, survey methodology.