bloodletting
"bloodletting" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bloodletting” is uncommon English (frequency #59,233 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #59,233
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The archaic practice of treating illness by removing some blood, believed to be tainted, from the stricken person.
Corpus desk
Index EN-bloodletting · bloodletting · English
bloodletting · rank #59,233 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #59,233
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH bleating
Nearest frequency peer: bleating (-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 “bloodletting”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- biogenesis
biogenesis
40,771 corpus weight
- Birnbaum
Birnbaum
40,770 corpus weight
- bleating
bleating
40,769 corpus weight
- bloodletting
bloodletting
40,768 corpus weight
- blowtorch
blowtorch
40,767 corpus weight
- BME
BME
40,766 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “bloodletting” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bloodletting |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #59,233 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “bloodletting” in English
Rare enough to double-check
bloodletting is uncommon English at frequency #59,233 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for bloodletting, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From blood + letting, equal to bloodlet + -ing. The correct English form is bloodletting, spelled B-L-O-O-D-L-E-T-T-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1The archaic practice of treating illness by removing some blood, believed to be tainted, from the stricken person.
- 2The diminishment of any resource with the hope that this will lead to a positive effect.
- 3A circumstance, such as a battle, where a large amount of blood is likely to be spilled through violence.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how bloodletting appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The pungent pain, dyspnœa, cephalalgia, redness of the face, pulsations of the heart, strong and rapid, the pulse full and vibrating, induced M. Peyrade, then attached to that hospital, to practise blood-letting in the arm. It was followed with marked relief.
Yet another round of corporate bloodletting.
Etymology
From blood + letting, equal to bloodlet + -ing.
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 "bloodletting", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).