apothecary
/əˈpɒθəkəɹi/
"apothecary" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“apothecary” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #39,680 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #39,680
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
- 15
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Synonym of pharmacist: a person who sells medicine, especially (historical) one who made and sold their own medicines in the medieval or early modern eras.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | apothecary |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /əˈpɒθəkəɹi/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #39,680 |
| Misspellings tracked | 15 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “apothecary” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for apothecary is 10 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈpɒθəkəɹi/. Corpus data places it at rank #39,680 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 15 likely wrong-spelling variants for apothecary, with forms such as "aopthecary", "apohtecary", and "apotehcary". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old French apotecaire (whence French apothicaire), from Medieval Latin apothecarius (“storekeeper”), from Latin apotheca (“(originally) repository, storehouse, warehouse; (later) shop, store”), from Ancient Greek ἀποθήκη (apothḗkē, “a repository, store… The correct English form is apothecary, spelled A-P-O-T-H-E-C-A-R-Y.
Definition
- 1Synonym of pharmacist: a person who sells medicine, especially (historical) one who made and sold their own medicines in the medieval or early modern eras.
- 2Synonym of pharmacy: an apothecary's shop, a drugstore.
- 3A glass jar of the sort once used for storing medicine.
Etymology
From Old French apotecaire (whence French apothicaire), from Medieval Latin apothecarius (“storekeeper”), from Latin apotheca (“(originally) repository, storehouse, warehouse; (later) shop, store”), from Ancient Greek ἀποθήκη (apothḗkē, “a repository, storehouse”), from ἀπό (apó, “away”) + τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put”), literally “a place where things are put away”. Doublet of boutique and bodega.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aopthecary,apohtecary,apotehcary,apothceary,apotheacry,apothecarry,apothecaryy,apothecayr,apotheccary,apothecray,apothhecary,apotthecary,appothecary,aptohecary,paothecary
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of apothecary - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "apothecary"?
What does "apothecary" mean?
What are common misspellings of "apothecary"?
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What is the origin of the word "apothecary"?
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Using “apothecary”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-P-O-T-H-E-C-A-R-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈpɒθəkəɹi/ (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.