anopheles
/əˈnɒfɪliːz/
"anopheles" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“anopheles” is an uncommon English word, ranked #63,420 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #63,420
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A mosquito of the genus Anopheles, some insects of which transmit various parasites of the genus Plasmodium that are the cause of malaria.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | anopheles |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /əˈnɒfɪliːz/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #63,420 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “anopheles” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for anopheles is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈnɒfɪliːz/. Corpus data places it at rank #63,420 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A mosquito of the genus Anopheles, some insects of which transmit various parasites of the genus Plasmodium that are the cause of malaria.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for anopheles, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from translingual Anopheles (“genus of mosquitoes”), coined by the German entomologist Johann Wilhelm Meigen (1764–1845), from Ancient Greek ἀνωφελής (anōphelḗs, “unprofitable, useless; hurtful, prejudicial”), from ἀν- (an-) (a variant of ᾰ̓- (ă-, … The correct English form is anopheles, spelled A-N-O-P-H-E-L-E-S.
Definition
- 1A mosquito of the genus Anopheles, some insects of which transmit various parasites of the genus Plasmodium that are the cause of malaria.
Etymology
Borrowed from translingual Anopheles (“genus of mosquitoes”), coined by the German entomologist Johann Wilhelm Meigen (1764–1845), from Ancient Greek ἀνωφελής (anōphelḗs, “unprofitable, useless; hurtful, prejudicial”), from ἀν- (an-) (a variant of ᾰ̓- (ă-, prefix forming terms having senses opposite to stems or terms to which it is attached)) + ὄφελος (óphelos, “advantage, benefit, good”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃bʰel-) + -ης (-ēs, suffix forming third-declension adjectives). Doublet of Ophelia
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 "anopheles"?
What does "anopheles" mean?
How do you pronounce "anopheles"?
What is the origin of the word "anopheles"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “anopheles”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-N-O-P-H-E-L-E-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈnɒfɪliːz/ (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
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.