cornel
/ˈkɔːnəl/
"cornel" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cornel” is uncommon English (frequency #62,798 among 43,570 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #62,798
- frequency rank, English
- 43,570
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any tree or shrub of the dogwood subgenera, Cornus subg. Arctocrania (syn. Cornus subg. Chamaepericlymenum) or Cornus subg. Cornus, especially Cornus mas, the European cornel.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cornel |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkɔːnəl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #62,798 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cornel” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
cornel is uncommon English at frequency #62,798 among 43,570 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈkɔːnəl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for cornel, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English corneille, borrowed from Middle French corneille, from Vulgar Latin *cornicula, from Latin cornus (“the European cornel”). The correct English form is cornel, spelled C-O-R-N-E-L.
Definition
- 1Any tree or shrub of the dogwood subgenera, Cornus subg. Arctocrania (syn. Cornus subg. Chamaepericlymenum) or Cornus subg. Cornus, especially Cornus mas, the European cornel.
- 2The cherry-like fruit of such plants, certain of which are edible.
Etymology
From Middle English corneille, borrowed from Middle French corneille, from Vulgar Latin *cornicula, from Latin cornus (“the European cornel”).
Synonyms
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 “cornel”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-R-N-E-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkɔːnəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.