amyl

/ˈæ.mɪl/

//ˈæ.mɪl// noun

"amyl" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“amyl” is uncommon English (frequency #91,224 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#91,224
frequency rank, English
3,931
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Synonym of pentyl.

Corpus desk

Index EN-amyl · amyl · English

amyl · rank #91,224 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #91,224
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,931
  • PHOTO-FINISH amendatory

Nearest frequency peer: amendatory (-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 “amyl”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “amyl” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for amyl
PropertyValue
Headwordamyl
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈæ.mɪl/
Letters4
Frequency rank#91,224
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “amyl” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).amylfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “amendatory” (#91,223), “Anant” (#91,225), “ambitiously” (#91,222). Among 3,931 “A” headwords, “amyl” is #91,224. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

amyl is uncommon English at frequency #91,224 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈæ.mɪl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for amyl, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin amylum (“starch”), from Ancient Greek ἄμυλον (ámulon, “starch”) from ἀ- (a-, “privative”) + μύλη (múlē, “mill”). The correct English form is amyl, spelled A-M-Y-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Synonym of pentyl.
  2. 2
    Ellipsis of amyl nitrite.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how amyl appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. We had two bags of grass, 75 pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers. . . and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.
  2. Holy fuck! — it’s like a double amyl rush — popping in the cranium like a week-old orgasm.

Etymology

From Latin amylum (“starch”), from Ancient Greek ἄμυλον (ámulon, “starch”) from ἀ- (a-, “privative”) + μύλη (múlē, “mill”).

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

How do you spell "amyl"?
"amyl" is spelled A-M-Y-L. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈæ.mɪl/.
What does "amyl" mean?
As a noun, "amyl" means: Synonym of pentyl.
How do you pronounce "amyl"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "amyl" is /ˈæ.mɪl/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "amyl"?
From Latin amylum (“starch”), from Ancient Greek ἄμυλον (ámulon, “starch”) from ἀ- (a-, “privative”) + μύλη (múlē, “mill”). See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "amyl", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list