Arcturus
/ɑɹkˈtjʊəɹəs/
"arcturus" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Arcturus” is an uncommon English word, ranked #83,978 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #83,978
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A bright yellow-orange star in the constellation Boötes; Alpha (α) Boötis. It is the fourth-brightest star in the night sky.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Arcturus |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ɑɹkˈtjʊəɹəs/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #83,978 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Arcturus” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Arcturus is 8 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɑɹkˈtjʊəɹəs/. Corpus data places it at rank #83,978 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A bright yellow-orange star in the constellation Boötes; Alpha (α) Boötis. It is the fourth-brightest star in the night sky.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for Arcturus, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin Arctūrus. The correct English form is Arcturus, spelled A-R-C-T-U-R-U-S.
Definition
- 1A bright yellow-orange star in the constellation Boötes; Alpha (α) Boötis. It is the fourth-brightest star in the night sky.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin Arctūrus.
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 “Arcturus”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-R-C-T-U-R-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɑɹkˈtjʊəɹəs/ (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.