Circe
/ˈsɜː.si/
"circe" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Circe” is uncommon English (frequency #58,594 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #58,594
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An enchantress who turned Odysseus's men into pigs.
Corpus desk
Index EN-circe · Circe · English
Circe · rank #58,594 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #58,594
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH civilly
Nearest frequency peer: civilly (+1 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 “Circe”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Caterham
Caterham
41,412 corpus weight
- CD8
CD8
41,411 corpus weight
- Changsha
Changsha
41,410 corpus weight
- Circe
Circe
41,407 corpus weight
- civilly
civilly
41,406 corpus weight
- clairvoyance
clairvoyance
41,405 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “Circe” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Circe |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɜː.si/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #58,594 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “Circe” in English
Rare enough to double-check
Circe is uncommon English at frequency #58,594 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed /ˈsɜː.si/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for Circe, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin Circē. The correct English form is Circe, spelled C-I-R-C-E.
Definition
- 1An enchantress who turned Odysseus's men into pigs.
- 2A woman having the characteristics of Circe; an enchantress.
- 334 Circe, a main belt asteroid.
- 4A chess variant, often used in fairy chess problems, where pieces return to their starting square after being captured.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how Circe appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Here is a nice state of affairs. I, at my age, to fall a victim to this modern Circe!
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin Circē.
Synonyms
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 "Circe", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).