catena
/kəˈtiːnə/
"catena" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“catena” is uncommon English (frequency #90,266 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #90,266
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A series of related items.
Corpus desk
Index EN-catena · catena · English
catena · rank #90,266 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #90,266
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH Catalonian
Nearest frequency peer: Catalonian (-2 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 “catena”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- carryout
carryout
9,740 corpus weight
- castellan
castellan
9,738 corpus weight
- Catalonian
Catalonian
9,737 corpus weight
- catena
catena
9,735 corpus weight
- cauterize
cauterize
9,733 corpus weight
- cavil
cavil
9,732 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “catena” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | catena |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kəˈtiːnə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #90,266 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “catena” in English
Rare enough to double-check
catena is uncommon English at frequency #90,266 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /kəˈtiːnə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for catena in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Medieval Latin catena, from Latin catēna (“chain”). Doublet of chain. The correct English form is catena, spelled C-A-T-E-N-A.
Definition
- 1A series of related items.
- 2A series of distinct soils arrayed along a slope.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how catena appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
And, on the contrary, there is a whole catena of authorities, beginning with Sir Robert Peel and ending with Mr. Lowe, which say that the Banking Department of the Bank of England is only a Bank like any other bank [...]
The changes in soil characteristics from the crest to the foot of a slope are together known as a catena.
Etymology
From Medieval Latin catena, from Latin catēna (“chain”). Doublet of chain.
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 "catena", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).