Celsius
/ˈsɛlsiəs/
"celsius" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Celsius” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #19,780 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #19,780
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Related to a metric temperature scale, originally defined as having the freezing point of water as 0 degrees and its boiling point as 100 degrees, at standard atmospheric pressure. The standardized...
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 | Celsius |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈsɛlsiəs/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #19,780 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Celsius” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Celsius is 7 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsɛlsiəs/. Corpus data places it at rank #19,780 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Related to a metric temperature scale, originally defined as having the freezing point of water as 0 degrees and its boiling point as 100 degrees, at standard atmospheric pressure. The standardized...".
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for Celsius, with forms such as "ccelsius", "celisus", and "cellsius". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "census", "Cassius", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Named after Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744), who first proposed the centigrade scale in 1742. The surname is Latinized from the estate's name, Latin celsus (“mound”). The correct English form is Celsius, spelled C-E-L-S-I-U-S.
Definition
- 1Related to a metric temperature scale, originally defined as having the freezing point of water as 0 degrees and its boiling point as 100 degrees, at standard atmospheric pressure. The standardized definition has 0.01 °C as the triple point of water, and a difference in temperature of 1 °C corresponds to ¹⁄_(273.16) of the difference in temperature between the triple point and the absolute zero.
Etymology
Named after Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744), who first proposed the centigrade scale in 1742. The surname is Latinized from the estate's name, Latin celsus (“mound”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccelsius,celisus,cellsius,celsisu,celsiuss,celssius,celsuis,ceslius,clesius,eclsius
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Celsius - 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 “Celsius”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-E-L-S-I-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈsɛlsiəs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “census” - see the side-by-side comparison. Celsius vs census
- 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.