Athanasius
/ˌæθəˈneɪʃəs/
"athanasius" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Athanasius” is an uncommon English word, ranked #55,249 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #55,249
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A transliteration of the Ancient Greek male given name Ἀθανάσιος (Athanásios), Athanasius.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Athanasius |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˌæθəˈneɪʃəs/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #55,249 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Athanasius” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Athanasius is 10 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌæθəˈneɪʃəs/. Corpus data places it at rank #55,249 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A transliteration of the Ancient Greek male given name Ἀθανάσιος (Athanásios), Athanasius.".
Athanasius has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin Athanasius, from Ancient Greek Ἀθανάσιος (Athanásios), from ἀθανάσιος (athanásios, “immortal”), from ἀθάνατος (athánatos, “immortal”). Doublet of Afanasy and tansy. Compare Ambrose. The correct English form is Athanasius, spelled A-T-H-A-N-A-S-I-U-S.
Definition
- 1A transliteration of the Ancient Greek male given name Ἀθανάσιος (Athanásios), Athanasius.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin Athanasius, from Ancient Greek Ἀθανάσιος (Athanásios), from ἀθανάσιος (athanásios, “immortal”), from ἀθάνατος (athánatos, “immortal”). Doublet of Afanasy and tansy. Compare Ambrose.
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 “Athanasius”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-T-H-A-N-A-S-I-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌæθəˈneɪʃəs/ (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.