conspicuous
/kənˈspɪk.ju.əs/adjective
conspicuous is spelled C-O-N-S-P-I-C-U-O-U-S. The wrong spelling people search most is conspicious: about 220 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 21 of all searches for the word. Conspicuous is an adjective meaning “Obvious or easy to notice”.
How many letters and syllables are in conspicuous?
| Letters | 11: C-O-N-S-P-I-C-U-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.2 times per million words; the 18,297th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, conspicious, about 220 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell conspicuous?
Conspicuous is spelled C-O-N-S-P-I-C-U-O-U-S. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 21 of the searches for conspicuous in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is conspicuous?
Conspicuous appears 2.2 times per million words in written English, the 18,297th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce conspicuous?
- /kənˈspɪk.ju.əs/
Conspicuous has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-conspicuous.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of conspicuous
- more conspicuous comparative
- most conspicuous superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does conspicuous mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Obvious or easy to notice.
He was conspicuous by his absence.
- 2
Noticeable or attracting attention, especially if unattractive.
He had a conspicuous lump on his forehead.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Conspicuous in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | qui se remarque aisément, visible, voyant, remarquable , qui attire l'attention |
| German | auffällig, augenfällig, offensichtlich, sichtbar, hervorstechend, augenscheinlich |
| Portuguese | conspícuo, proeminente , saliente |
| Spanish | conspicuo, llamativo, ilustre, notorio, ostentoso |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does conspicuous come from?
From Latin conspicuus (“visible, striking”), from cōnspicere (“to notice”), from con- (“with, together”) + specere (“to look at”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).