catatonia
/ˌkætəˈtoʊniə/
"catatonia" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“catatonia” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A severe psychiatric condition, often associated with schizophrenia, characterized by a tendency to remain in a rigid state of stupor for long periods which give way to short periods of extreme agi...
Corpus desk
Index EN-catatonia · catatonia · English
catatonia · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-5 5 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 | catatonia |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌkætəˈtoʊniə/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “catatonia” in English
Rare enough to double-check
catatonia is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌkætəˈtoʊniə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for catatonia in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From international scientific vocabulary, from German Katatonie, from New Latin catatonia, from a Greek word meaning to stretch tight. By surface analysis, cata- + tone + -ia. The correct English form is catatonia, spelled C-A-T-A-T-O-N-I-A.
Definition
- 1A severe psychiatric condition, often associated with schizophrenia, characterized by a tendency to remain in a rigid state of stupor for long periods which give way to short periods of extreme agitation.
- 2A frozen, unresponsive state, as of electronic equipment.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how catatonia appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
“Relay that!” Thwaite shouted. Somewhere on the bridge a hand closed over a relay and dropped the AIDs into an electronic catatonia.
Etymology
From international scientific vocabulary, from German Katatonie, from New Latin catatonia, from a Greek word meaning to stretch tight. By surface analysis, cata- + tone + -ia.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.