bituminous

adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"bituminous" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“bituminous” is uncommon English (frequency #62,004 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#62,004
frequency rank, English
4,121
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of or pertaining to bitumen.

Corpus desk

Index EN-bituminous · bituminous · English

bituminous · rank #62,004 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #62,004
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,121
  • PHOTO-FINISH binky

Nearest frequency peer: binky (-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 “bituminous”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for bituminous
PropertyValue
Headwordbituminous
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters10
Frequency rank#62,004
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “bituminous” in English

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).bituminousfalls 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: “binky” (#62,003), “Blackheath” (#62,005), “bilaterally” (#62,002). Among 4,121 “B” headwords, “bituminous” is #62,004. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

bituminous is uncommon English at frequency #62,004 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Of or pertaining to bitumen.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for bituminous, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From French bitumineux. The correct English form is bituminous, spelled B-I-T-U-M-I-N-O-U-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to bitumen.

Etymology

From French bitumineux.

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 "bituminous"?
"bituminous" is spelled B-I-T-U-M-I-N-O-U-S.
What does "bituminous" mean?
As an adjective, "bituminous" means: Of or pertaining to bitumen.
What is the origin of the word "bituminous"?
From French bitumineux. 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 "bituminous", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Blackheath#62,005Barnstable#61,990Carpathian#62,034decapitate#62,089

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list