coltan
/ˈkoʊlˌtæn/
"coltan" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“coltan” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A metallic ore, (Fe,Mn)(Ta,Nb)₂O₆, from which the elements niobium and tantalum are extracted.
Corpus desk
Index EN-coltan · coltan · English
coltan · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | coltan |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkoʊlˌtæn/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “coltan” in English
Rare enough to double-check
coltan is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈkoʊlˌtæn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A metallic ore, (Fe,Mn)(Ta,Nb)₂O₆, from which the elements niobium and tantalum are extracted.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for coltan, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Blend of columbite + tantalite. The correct English form is coltan, spelled C-O-L-T-A-N.
Definition
- 1A metallic ore, (Fe,Mn)(Ta,Nb)₂O₆, from which the elements niobium and tantalum are extracted.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how coltan appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Coltan is used for the production of tantalum capacitors.
[…] as of 2003 over one billion cell phones were in use worldwide, so by the time the high-tech bubble approached its bursting point in 2000 and 2001, coltan had become an extremely hot commodity.
Etymology
Blend of columbite + tantalite.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.