carnelian
/kɑɹˈnil.jən/
"carnelian" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“carnelian” is uncommon English (frequency #77,509 among 43,570 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #77,509
- frequency rank, English
- 43,570
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A hard, reddish brown chalcedony used in jewelry.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | carnelian |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kɑɹˈnil.jən/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #77,509 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “carnelian” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
carnelian is uncommon English at frequency #77,509 among 43,570 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /kɑɹˈnil.jən/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A hard, reddish brown chalcedony used in jewelry.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for carnelian, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From cornelian, the red form named carneolus under the influence of Latin carneus (“fleshy”) because of its color. The correct English form is carnelian, spelled C-A-R-N-E-L-I-A-N.
Definition
- 1A hard, reddish brown chalcedony used in jewelry.
Etymology
From cornelian, the red form named carneolus under the influence of Latin carneus (“fleshy”) because of its color.
Synonyms
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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Using “carnelian”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-A-R-N-E-L-I-A-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kɑɹˈnil.jən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.