Circe
/ˈsɜː.si/
"circe" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Circe” is uncommon English (frequency #58,594 among 43,570 “C” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #58,594
- frequency rank, English
- 43,570
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An enchantress who turned Odysseus's men into pigs.
| 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) |
Where “Circe” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Circe is uncommon English at frequency #58,594 among 43,570 “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.
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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Using “Circe”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-I-R-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈsɜː.si/ (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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.