Australopithecus

noun

"australopithecus" is a 16-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“Australopithecus” is uncommon English (frequency #88,075 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#88,075
frequency rank, English
3,931
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Synonym of australopith.

Corpus desk

Index EN-australopithecus · Australopithecus · English

Australopithecus · rank #88,075 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #88,075
  • LEN-MEGA 16 letters
  • VOW-7 7 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,931
  • PHOTO-FINISH auroral

Nearest frequency peer: auroral (-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 “Australopithecus”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Australopithecus
PropertyValue
HeadwordAustralopithecus
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters16
Frequency rank#88,075
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “Australopithecus” in English

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).Australopithecusfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “auroral” (#88,074), “audiotape” (#88,073), “aten” (#88,072). Among 3,931 “A” headwords, “Australopithecus” is #88,075. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Australopithecus is uncommon English at frequency #88,075 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Synonym of australopith.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for Australopithecus in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

Etymologically, the entry records: From the genus name Australopithecus. The correct English form is Australopithecus, spelled A-U-S-T-R-A-L-O-P-I-T-H-E-C-U-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Synonym of australopith.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. In its turn the institute received from the British Museum of Natural History plaster casts of the skulls of Australopithecuses, a species of higher ape which lived over a million years ago.
  2. In his final period, Teilhard felt he saw all his own Weltanschauung confirmed by Dr. Broom’s work with the fossils of Australopitheci in South Africa; […]

Etymology

From the genus name Australopithecus.

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 "Australopithecus"?
"Australopithecus" is spelled A-U-S-T-R-A-L-O-P-I-T-H-E-C-U-S.
What does "Australopithecus" mean?
As a noun, "Australopithecus" means: Synonym of australopith.
What is the origin of the word "Australopithecus"?
From the genus name Australopithecus. 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 "Australopithecus", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 16 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list