Asclepius

/əˈskliːpi.əs/

//əˈskliːpi.əs// name

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"asclepius" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“Asclepius” is uncommon English (frequency #95,697 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#95,697
frequency rank, English
3,931
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A Greek mythological deity, the god of doctors, medicine and healing; a son of Apollo and the Thessalian princess Coronis, husband to the goddess Epione and father of the Asclepiades; identified wi...

Corpus desk

Index EN-asclepius · Asclepius · English

Asclepius · rank #95,697 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #95,697
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,931
  • PHOTO-FINISH asocial

Nearest frequency peer: asocial (+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 “Asclepius”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Asclepius
PropertyValue
HeadwordAsclepius
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechProper noun
IPA/əˈskliːpi.əs/
Letters9
Frequency rank#95,697
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “Asclepius” 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).Asclepiusfalls 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: “asocial” (#95,698), “atomically” (#95,703), “Aomori” (#95,690). Among 3,931 “A” headwords, “Asclepius” is #95,697. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Asclepius is uncommon English at frequency #95,697 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed /əˈskliːpi.əs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Asclepius doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin Asclēpius, from Ancient Greek Ἀσκληπιός (Asklēpiós). The correct English form is Asclepius, spelled A-S-C-L-E-P-I-U-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    A Greek mythological deity, the god of doctors, medicine and healing; a son of Apollo and the Thessalian princess Coronis, husband to the goddess Epione and father of the Asclepiades; identified with the Roman god Aesculapius.
  2. 2
    The Apollo asteroid 4581 Asclepius.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. We found religious medicine in the Homeric poems, and there was no century without healing cults. The cult of Asclepius was by no means the only one, but, for reasons that will be discussed later, it dominated the scene and set a pattern for the cults of other healing deities.
  2. The temple of Asclepius is located just inside the north wall (Fig. 5) and is referred to by Pausanias (p. 34), who notes that the site was a place of refreshment in summer.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin Asclēpius, from Ancient Greek Ἀσκληπιός (Asklēpiós).

This word in other languages

Asclépios(Français)Äskulap(Deutsch)

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 "Asclepius"?
"Asclepius" is spelled A-S-C-L-E-P-I-U-S. The IPA pronunciation is /əˈskliːpi.əs/.
What does "Asclepius" mean?
As a proper noun, "Asclepius" means: A Greek mythological deity, the god of doctors, medicine and healing; a son of Apollo and the Thessalian princess Coronis, husband to the goddess Epione and father of the Asclepiades; identified wi...
How do you pronounce "Asclepius"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Asclepius" is /əˈskliːpi.əs/. 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 "Asclepius"?
Borrowed from Latin Asclēpius, from Ancient Greek Ἀσκληπιός (Asklēpiós). 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 "Asclepius", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

anticline#95,685Behringer#95,735carcinoid#95,796Carinthia#95,798

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list