bacteriophage
/bækˈtɪəɹ.ɪəʊˌfeɪd͡ʒ/
"bacteriophage" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bacteriophage” is uncommon English (frequency #76,556 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #76,556
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A virus that specifically infects bacteria.
Corpus desk
Index EN-bacteriophage · bacteriophage · English
bacteriophage · rank #76,556 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #76,556
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH backspace
Nearest frequency peer: backspace (-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 “bacteriophage”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- auxin
auxin
23,451 corpus weight
- Avoca
Avoca
23,449 corpus weight
- Baar
Baar
23,448 corpus weight
- backspace
backspace
23,446 corpus weight
- bacteriopha…
bacteriophage
23,445 corpus weight
- baile
baile
23,442 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “bacteriophage” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bacteriophage |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bækˈtɪəɹ.ɪəʊˌfeɪd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Frequency rank | #76,556 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “bacteriophage” in English
Rare enough to double-check
bacteriophage is uncommon English at frequency #76,556 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /bækˈtɪəɹ.ɪəʊˌfeɪd͡ʒ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A virus that specifically infects bacteria.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for bacteriophage in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French bactériophage, coined by microbiologist Félix d'Hérelle, from bacterio- (“bacteria”) + -phage (“eater”). The correct English form is bacteriophage, spelled B-A-C-T-E-R-I-O-P-H-A-G-E.
Definition
- 1A virus that specifically infects bacteria.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how bacteriophage appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Another possibility is to enlist a bacteriophage, a kind of virus, to hunt down and kill harmful bacteria for us.
Etymology
Borrowed from French bactériophage, coined by microbiologist Félix d'Hérelle, from bacterio- (“bacteria”) + -phage (“eater”).
Synonyms
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bacteriophage", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 13 letters (nearest by frequency rank).