asphyxia
/æzˈfɪksiə/
"asphyxia" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“asphyxia” is an uncommon English word, ranked #58,518 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #58,518
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Loss of consciousness due to the interruption of breathing and consequent anoxia.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | asphyxia |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /æzˈfɪksiə/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #58,518 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “asphyxia” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for asphyxia is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /æzˈfɪksiə/. Corpus data places it at rank #58,518 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 edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for asphyxia, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from New Latin asphyxia, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀσφυξία (asphuxía, “stopping of the pulse”). The correct English form is asphyxia, spelled A-S-P-H-Y-X-I-A.
Definition
- 1Loss of consciousness due to the interruption of breathing and consequent anoxia.
- 2Loss of consciousness due to the body's inability to deliver oxygen to its tissues, either by the breathing of air lacking oxygen or by the inability of the blood to carry oxygen.
- 3A condition in which an extreme decrease in the concentration of oxygen in the body leads to loss of consciousness or death. Replaced in the mid-20th century by the more specific terms anoxia, hypoxia, hypoxemia and hypercapnia.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from New Latin asphyxia, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀσφυξία (asphuxía, “stopping of the pulse”).
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 “asphyxia”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-S-P-H-Y-X-I-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /æzˈfɪksiə/ (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.