alga
/ˈæl.ɡə/
"alga" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“alga” is uncommon English (frequency #64,173 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #64,173
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any of many aquatic photosynthetic organisms, including the seaweeds, whose size ranges from a single cell to giant kelps and whose biochemistry and forms are very diverse, some being eukaryotic.
Corpus desk
Index EN-alga · alga · English
alga · rank #64,173 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #64,173
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH Aleksei
Nearest frequency peer: Aleksei (-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 “alga”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Alda
Alda
35,831 corpus weight
- Aleksei
Aleksei
35,829 corpus weight
- alga
alga
35,828 corpus weight
- Altai
Altai
35,826 corpus weight
- ambiguously
ambiguously
35,825 corpus weight
- amnesiac
amnesiac
35,824 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “alga” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | alga |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈæl.ɡə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #64,173 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “alga” in English
Rare enough to double-check
alga is uncommon English at frequency #64,173 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈæl.ɡə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of many aquatic photosynthetic organisms, including the seaweeds, whose size ranges from a single cell to giant kelps and whose biochemistry and forms are very diverse, some being eukaryotic.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for alga, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin alga. The correct English form is alga, spelled A-L-G-A.
Definition
- 1Any of many aquatic photosynthetic organisms, including the seaweeds, whose size ranges from a single cell to giant kelps and whose biochemistry and forms are very diverse, some being eukaryotic.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how alga appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
For example, the antitumour depsipeptide kahalalide F was isolated from the opisthobranch mollusc Elysia rufescens, and is used by both the mollusc and its dietary alga Bryopsis spp.
Etymology
From Latin alga.
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 "alga", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).