acanthus
/əˈkæn.θəs/
"acanthus" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“acanthus” is an uncommon English word, ranked #85,985 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #85,985
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A member of the genus Acanthus of herbaceous prickly plants with toothed leaves, (family Acanthaceae, order Lamiales (formerly Scrophulariales)) found in the south of Europe, Asia Minor, and India.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | acanthus |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /əˈkæn.θəs/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #85,985 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “acanthus” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for acanthus is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈkæn.θəs/. Corpus data places it at rank #85,985 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for acanthus, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin acanthus, from Ancient Greek ἄκανθος (ákanthos, “thorn”), from ἀκή (akḗ, “point”) + ἄνθος (ánthos, “flower”). The correct English form is acanthus, spelled A-C-A-N-T-H-U-S.
Definition
- 1A member of the genus Acanthus of herbaceous prickly plants with toothed leaves, (family Acanthaceae, order Lamiales (formerly Scrophulariales)) found in the south of Europe, Asia Minor, and India.
- 2An ornament resembling the foliage or leaves of Acanthus spinosus, used in the capitals of the Corinthian and composite orders.
Etymology
From Latin acanthus, from Ancient Greek ἄκανθος (ákanthos, “thorn”), from ἀκή (akḗ, “point”) + ἄνθος (ánthos, “flower”).
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 “acanthus”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-C-A-N-T-H-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈkæn.θəs/ (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.