contractile
"contractile" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“contractile” is uncommon English (frequency #80,344 among 43,570 “C” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #80,344
- frequency rank, English
- 43,570
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Capable of contracting, or of being contracted.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | contractile |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #80,344 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “contractile” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
contractile is uncommon English at frequency #80,344 among 43,570 “C” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Capable of contracting, or of being contracted.".
contractile has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French contractile. The correct English form is contractile, spelled C-O-N-T-R-A-C-T-I-L-E.
Definition
- 1Capable of contracting, or of being contracted.
Etymology
From French contractile.
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 “contractile”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-N-T-R-A-C-T-I-L-E - 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.