calcium
/ˈkælsi.əm/
"calcium" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“calcium” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,291 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #9,291
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The chemical element with atomic number 20: a soft, silvery-white alkaline earth metal which occurs naturally as carbonate in limestone and as silicate in many rocks.
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 | calcium |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkælsi.əm/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #9,291 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “calcium” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for calcium is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkælsi.əm/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,291 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for calcium, with forms such as "aclcium", "caclium", and "calccium". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "Calum", "Callum", "cadmium", 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 Latin calx (“lime, limestone”) because it occurs in limestone. By surface analysis, calc- + -ium. The correct English form is calcium, spelled C-A-L-C-I-U-M.
Definition
- 1The chemical element with atomic number 20: a soft, silvery-white alkaline earth metal which occurs naturally as carbonate in limestone and as silicate in many rocks.
- 2An atom of this element.
Etymology
Coined by British chemist Humphry Davy in 1808, from Latin calx (“lime, limestone”) because it occurs in limestone. By surface analysis, calc- + -ium.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aclcium,caclium,calccium,calcimu,calciumm,calcuim,calicum,callcium,ccalcium,clacium
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of calcium - 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
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Using “calcium”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-A-L-C-I-U-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkælsi.əm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Calum” - see the side-by-side comparison. calcium vs Calum
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.