centroid

noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"centroid" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“centroid” is an uncommon English word, ranked #77,517 in English word frequency and used as a noun.

#77,517
frequency rank, English
8
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The point at which gravitational force (or other universally and uniformly acting force) may be supposed to act on a given rigid, uniformly dense body; the centre of gravity or centre of mass.

Key facts for centroid
PropertyValue
Headwordcentroid
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters8
Frequency rank#77,517
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “centroid” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). centroid lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for centroid is 8 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #77,517 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for centroid, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: From centre + -oid. From 1844, used as a replacement for the older terms "centre of gravity" and "centre of mass" in situations described in purely geometrical terms, and subsequently used for further generalisations. The correct English form is centroid, spelled C-E-N-T-R-O-I-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    The point at which gravitational force (or other universally and uniformly acting force) may be supposed to act on a given rigid, uniformly dense body; the centre of gravity or centre of mass.
  2. 2
    The point of intersection of the three medians of a given triangle; the point whose (Cartesian) coordinates are the arithmetic mean of the coordinates of the three vertices.
  3. 3
    the point whose (Cartesian) coordinates are the arithmetic mean of the coordinates of a given finite set of points.
  4. 4
    An analogue of the centre of gravity of a nonuniform body in which local density is replaced by a specified function (which can take negative values) and the place of the body's shape is taken by the function's domain.
  5. 5
    the arithmetic mean (alternatively, median) position of a cluster of points in a coordinate system based on some application-dependent measure of distance.
  6. 6
    Given a tree of n nodes, either (1) a unique node whose removal would split the tree into subtrees of fewer than n/2 nodes, or (2) either of a pair of adjacent nodes such that removal of the edge connecting them would split the tree into two subtrees of exactly n/2 nodes.

Etymology

From centre + -oid. From 1844, used as a replacement for the older terms "centre of gravity" and "centre of mass" in situations described in purely geometrical terms, and subsequently used for further generalisations.

Synonyms

barycentrecentre of areacentre of gravitycentre of masscentre of volumegeometric centregeometric centroidbarycentrecentre of gravitycentre of massfunction centroidtree centroid

This word in other languages

centroïde(Français)

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

How do you spell "centroid"?
"centroid" is spelled C-E-N-T-R-O-I-D.
What does "centroid" mean?
As a noun, "centroid" means: The point at which gravitational force (or other universally and uniformly acting force) may be supposed to act on a given rigid, uniformly dense body; the centre of gravity or centre of mass.
What is the origin of the word "centroid"?
From centre + -oid. From 1844, used as a replacement for the older terms "centre of gravity" and "centre of mass" in situations described in purely geometrical terms, and subsequently used for further generalisations. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “centroid”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is C-E-N-T-R-O-I-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list