cephalic
/sɪˈfælɪk/
"cephalic" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cephalic” is an uncommon English word, ranked #82,164 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #82,164
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of or relating to the head.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cephalic |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /sɪˈfælɪk/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #82,164 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cephalic” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cephalic is 8 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /sɪˈfælɪk/. Corpus data places it at rank #82,164 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for cephalic, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French céphalique, from Latin cephalicus (“head”), from Ancient Greek κεφαλικός (kephalikós, “capital”), from κεφαλή (kephalḗ, “head”). The correct English form is cephalic, spelled C-E-P-H-A-L-I-C.
Definition
- 1Of or relating to the head.
- 2Of or relating to the head.
- 3Of or relating to the head.
- 4Toward the head; in bipeds such as humans, this direction corresponds to superior.
- 5Headlike; cephaloid.
Etymology
From Middle French céphalique, from Latin cephalicus (“head”), from Ancient Greek κεφαλικός (kephalikós, “capital”), from κεφαλή (kephalḗ, “head”).
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 “cephalic”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-E-P-H-A-L-I-C - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /sɪˈfælɪk/ (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
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.