acyl
/ˈæ.sɪl/
"acyl" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“acyl” is uncommon English (frequency #53,983 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #53,983
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any of class of organic radicals, RCO-, formed by the removal of a hydroxyl group from a carboxylic acid.
Corpus desk
Index EN-acyl · acyl · English
acyl · rank #53,983 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #53,983
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH acquiesce
Nearest frequency peer: acquiesce (-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 “acyl”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- acker
acker
46,020 corpus weight
- acquiesce
acquiesce
46,019 corpus weight
- acyl
acyl
46,018 corpus weight
- Adcock
Adcock
46,017 corpus weight
- Aditi
Aditi
46,016 corpus weight
- afghani
afghani
46,015 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “acyl” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | acyl |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈæ.sɪl/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #53,983 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “acyl” in English
Rare enough to double-check
acyl is uncommon English at frequency #53,983 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈæ.sɪl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of class of organic radicals, RCO-, formed by the removal of a hydroxyl group from a carboxylic acid.".
acyl doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Ultimately from Latin ac(eō) + -yl. The correct English form is acyl, spelled A-C-Y-L.
Definition
- 1Any of class of organic radicals, RCO-, formed by the removal of a hydroxyl group from a carboxylic acid.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how acyl appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
From ethyleneoxides or ethyleneimines carrying an acyl substituent, with hydrazine and its derivatives (Ch. 3. XV).
Etymology
Ultimately from Latin ac(eō) + -yl.
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 "acyl", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).