biosafety

/baɪ.ɑˈseɪf.tiː/

//baɪ.ɑˈseɪf.tiː// noun

"biosafety" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“biosafety” is uncommon English (frequency #77,460 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#77,460
frequency rank, English
4,121
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Protection from potential harm from biological agents, such as infectious microbes or modified genes.

Corpus desk

Index EN-biosafety · biosafety · English

biosafety · rank #77,460 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #77,460
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,121
  • PHOTO-FINISH blackthorn

Nearest frequency peer: blackthorn (+3 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 “biosafety”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for biosafety
PropertyValue
Headwordbiosafety
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/baɪ.ɑˈseɪf.tiː/
Letters9
Frequency rank#77,460
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “biosafety” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).biosafetyfalls in this rarity band:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “blackthorn” (#77,463), “Biafran” (#77,456), “blanketing” (#77,464). Among 4,121 “B” headwords, “biosafety” is #77,460. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

biosafety is uncommon English at frequency #77,460 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /baɪ.ɑˈseɪf.tiː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Protection from potential harm from biological agents, such as infectious microbes or modified genes.".

biosafety doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable 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 bio- + safety. The correct English form is biosafety, spelled B-I-O-S-A-F-E-T-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    Protection from potential harm from biological agents, such as infectious microbes or modified genes.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. “This action aims to ensure that WIV does not receive another dollar of federal funding,” an HHS spokesperson said in a statement. “The move was undertaken due to WIV’s failure to provide documentation on WIV’s research requested by NIH related to concerns that WIV violated NIH’s biosafety protocols.”

Etymology

From bio- + safety.

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 "biosafety"?
"biosafety" is spelled B-I-O-S-A-F-E-T-Y. The IPA pronunciation is /baɪ.ɑˈseɪf.tiː/.
What does "biosafety" mean?
As a noun, "biosafety" means: Protection from potential harm from biological agents, such as infectious microbes or modified genes.
How do you pronounce "biosafety"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "biosafety" is /baɪ.ɑˈseɪf.tiː/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "biosafety"?
From bio- + safety. 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 "biosafety", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list