alembic
/əˈlɛm.bɪk/
"alembic" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“alembic” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An early chemical apparatus, consisting of two retorts connected by a tube, used to purify substances by distillation.
Corpus desk
Index EN-alembic · alembic · English
alembic · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "A" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | alembic |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /əˈlɛm.bɪk/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “alembic” in English
Rare enough to double-check
alembic is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /əˈlɛm.bɪk/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An early chemical apparatus, consisting of two retorts connected by a tube, used to purify substances by distillation.".
Zero misspellings are on record for alembic in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French alambic, from Medieval Latin alembīcus, from Arabic الإِنْبِيق (al-ʔinbīq), from Ancient Greek ἄμβιξ (ámbix, “cup, cap of a still”). Doublet of ambix and lambic. The correct English form is alembic, spelled A-L-E-M-B-I-C.
Definition
- 1An early chemical apparatus, consisting of two retorts connected by a tube, used to purify substances by distillation.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how alembic appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Ideal beauty is not the mind’s creation: it is real beauty, refined and purified in the mind’s alembic, from the alloy which always more or less accompanies it in our mixed and imperfect nature.
Thus is Art, a nature passed through the alembic of man.
Etymology
From French alambic, from Medieval Latin alembīcus, from Arabic الإِنْبِيق (al-ʔinbīq), from Ancient Greek ἄμβιξ (ámbix, “cup, cap of a still”). Doublet of ambix and lambic.
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.