auriferous
/ɔːˈɹɪfəɹəs/
"auriferous" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“auriferous” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Containing or producing gold; gold-bearing.
Corpus desk
Index EN-auriferous · auriferous · English
auriferous · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "A" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | auriferous |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ɔːˈɹɪfəɹəs/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “auriferous” in English
Rare enough to double-check
auriferous is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ɔːˈɹɪfəɹəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Containing or producing gold; gold-bearing.".
auriferous has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin aurifer (“gold-bearing”) + the English suffix -ous. The Latin term in turn derived from aurum (“gold”) + ferō (“I carry”). The correct English form is auriferous, spelled A-U-R-I-F-E-R-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Containing or producing gold; gold-bearing.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how auriferous appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Rocks rich in gems, and mountains big with mines, / That on the high equator ridgy riſe, / Whence many a burſting ſtream auriferous plays: [...]
To these [compounds] belong native gold, alloys of gold and silver, and the argentiferous gold, or auriferous silver, obtained from the assayings of auriferous minerals and ores.
Etymology
From Latin aurifer (“gold-bearing”) + the English suffix -ous. The Latin term in turn derived from aurum (“gold”) + ferō (“I carry”).
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.