barium
/ˈbɛəɹɪəm/
"barium" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“barium” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #41,008. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #41,008
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The chemical element (symbol Ba) with an atomic number of 56. It is a soft, reactive, silvery alkaline earth metal.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | barium |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbɛəɹɪəm/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #41,008 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “barium” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 8 spelling variants around barium (IPA /ˈbɛəɹɪəm/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #41,008 among 31,241 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for barium, with forms such as "abrium", "bairum", and "barimu". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "brim", "Baum", "bari", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Coined by British chemist Humphry Davy in 1808, from baryta + -ium. The correct English form is barium, spelled B-A-R-I-U-M.
Definition
- 1The chemical element (symbol Ba) with an atomic number of 56. It is a soft, reactive, silvery alkaline earth metal.
- 2A single atom of this element.
- 3Barium sulphate suspension.
Etymology
Coined by British chemist Humphry Davy in 1808, from baryta + -ium.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- abrium
- bairum
- barimu
- bariumm
- barrium
- baruim
- bbarium
- braium
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of barium - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "barium"?
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Using “barium”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-A-R-I-U-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbɛəɹɪəm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “brim” - see the side-by-side comparison. barium vs brim
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Same frequency band
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.