acanthus
/əˈkæn.θəs/
"acanthus" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“acanthus” is uncommon English (frequency #85,985 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #85,985
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 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.
Corpus desk
Index EN-acanthus · acanthus · English
acanthus · rank #85,985 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #85,985
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH abrogate
Nearest frequency peer: abrogate (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “acanthus”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- abrogate
abrogate
14,017 corpus weight
- acanthus
acanthus
14,016 corpus weight
- Acheron
Acheron
14,015 corpus weight
- ACOG
ACOG
14,014 corpus weight
- acrylate
acrylate
14,013 corpus weight
- Adders
Adders
14,012 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “acanthus” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| 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) |
Long-tail rank of “acanthus” in English
Rare enough to double-check
acanthus is uncommon English at frequency #85,985 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /əˈkæn.θəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how acanthus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The picture before which they paused represented one of those ruined fountains so common to Italy. Francesca gazed upon it as if it had been an old friend: many a time, beside such a one, with its curved and broken marble, had she wreathed the acanthus that hung around it, the green and trailing foliage so profuse in the South, into shapes even more fanci…
It is difficult to imagine that Bernard of Clairvaux was gullible enough to accept dozens of historiated windows, grisaille fields of griffins, mosaic pavements, carved acanthus capitals, inhabited vine columns, and golden altarware on the strength of the justifications offered by a single window, one tympanum, and Suger's libelli.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "acanthus", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).