alkaloid
/ˈæl.kə.lɔɪd/
"alkaloid" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“alkaloid” is uncommon English (frequency #56,573 among 35,202 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #56,573
- frequency rank, English
- 35,202
- “A” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of many organic (often heterocyclic) bases that occur in nature and often have medicinal properties.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | alkaloid |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈæl.kə.lɔɪd/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #56,573 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “alkaloid” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
alkaloid is uncommon English at frequency #56,573 among 35,202 “A” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈæl.kə.lɔɪd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of many organic (often heterocyclic) bases that occur in nature and often have medicinal properties.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for alkaloid in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From alkali + -oid. Compare French alcaloïde. The correct English form is alkaloid, spelled A-L-K-A-L-O-I-D.
Definition
- 1Any of many organic (often heterocyclic) bases that occur in nature and often have medicinal properties.
Etymology
From alkali + -oid. Compare French alcaloïde.
Synonyms
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 “alkaloid”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-L-K-A-L-O-I-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈæl.kə.lɔɪd/ (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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.