clostridium
"clostridium" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“clostridium” is uncommon English (frequency #51,615 among 43,570 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #51,615
- frequency rank, English
- 43,570
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of several mostly anaerobic gram-positive bacteria, of the genus Clostridium, that are present in the soil and in the intestines of humans and animals and are capable of forming spores
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | clostridium |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #51,615 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “clostridium” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
clostridium is uncommon English at frequency #51,615 among 43,570 “C” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of several mostly anaerobic gram-positive bacteria, of the genus Clostridium, that are present in the soil and in the intestines of humans and animals and are capable of forming spores".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for clostridium, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from translingual Clostridium. The correct English form is clostridium, spelled C-L-O-S-T-R-I-D-I-U-M.
Definition
- 1Any of several mostly anaerobic gram-positive bacteria, of the genus Clostridium, that are present in the soil and in the intestines of humans and animals and are capable of forming spores
Etymology
Borrowed from translingual Clostridium.
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 “clostridium”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-L-O-S-T-R-I-D-I-U-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.