coloratura
/kɒləɹəˈtjʊɹə/
"coloratura" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“coloratura” is uncommon English (frequency #99,120 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #99,120
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Florid or fancy passages in vocal music.
Corpus desk
Index EN-coloratura · coloratura · English
coloratura · rank #99,120 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #99,120
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH collisional
Nearest frequency peer: collisional (-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 “coloratura”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- coffered
coffered
886 corpus weight
- Coggins
Coggins
885 corpus weight
- collinear
collinear
884 corpus weight
- collisional
collisional
882 corpus weight
- coloratura
coloratura
881 corpus weight
- conjunctiva
conjunctiva
878 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “coloratura” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | coloratura |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kɒləɹəˈtjʊɹə/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #99,120 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “coloratura” in English
Rare enough to double-check
coloratura is uncommon English at frequency #99,120 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /kɒləɹəˈtjʊɹə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
coloratura doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Italian coloratura, from Late Latin colōrātūra, from colōrāre (“to colour”). The correct English form is coloratura, spelled C-O-L-O-R-A-T-U-R-A.
Definition
- 1Florid or fancy passages in vocal music.
- 2A singer of such passages, especially a soprano.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how coloratura appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The singing is generally excellent, with Simon Keenlyside standing out for his richly vocalized (and amusingly dour) Papageno and Diana Damrau for her spot-on coloratura and genuine venom as the Queen of the Night.
The middle one, of course, was the coloratura Julia Kristeva, known as the most voluptuous Salome in the business.
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian coloratura, from Late Latin colōrātūra, from colōrāre (“to colour”).
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 "coloratura", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).