calvous
/ˈkælvəs/
"calvous" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“calvous” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Lacking most or all of one's hair; bald, hairless.
Corpus desk
Index EN-calvous · calvous · English
calvous · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | calvous |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈkælvəs/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “calvous” in English
Rare enough to double-check
calvous is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈkælvəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for calvous, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin calvus (“bald, hairless”) (of unclear origin, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *kl̥h₂wós or *kalw- (“bald; naked”), from a root *kl̥H- + *-wós (suffix forming adjectives from verb stems)) + -ous (suffix forming adjectives from nouns, den… The correct English form is calvous, spelled C-A-L-V-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Lacking most or all of one's hair; bald, hairless.
- 2Lacking bristles or pappuses.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how calvous appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Hubert had given me his passport, in great excitement. [...] Admittedly most old, bloated, calvous Germans could double for me, and even if he hadn't been doppelganger material, with the beard I had started growing and the two black eyes, you'd need x-rays to spot the difference.
LXII. MORYSIA. Cass. / Achenium calvous, terete, furrowed, wingless. [...] Glabrous shrubs, with scattered oblong, dentate, or entire leaves, and corymbose yellow flowers: closely related to Athanasia, from which they differ in the calvous achenia.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin calvus (“bald, hairless”) (of unclear origin, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *kl̥h₂wós or *kalw- (“bald; naked”), from a root *kl̥H- + *-wós (suffix forming adjectives from verb stems)) + -ous (suffix forming adjectives from nouns, denoting possession or presence of a quality).
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.