crocus
/ˈkɹəʊ.kəs/
"crocus" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“crocus” is uncommon English (frequency #55,359 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #55,359
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A perennial flowering plant (of the genus Crocus in the Iridaceae family). Saffron is obtained from the stamens of Crocus sativus.
Corpus desk
Index EN-crocus · crocus · English
crocus · rank #55,359 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #55,359
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH Cromer
Nearest frequency peer: Cromer (+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 “crocus”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Cracow
Cracow
44,646 corpus weight
- creased
creased
44,645 corpus weight
- Cretan
Cretan
44,644 corpus weight
- crocus
crocus
44,642 corpus weight
- Cromer
Cromer
44,641 corpus weight
- Crossley
Crossley
44,639 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “crocus” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | crocus |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkɹəʊ.kəs/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #55,359 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “crocus” in English
Rare enough to double-check
crocus is uncommon English at frequency #55,359 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈkɹəʊ.kəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for crocus in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Latin crocus, from Ancient Greek κρόκος (krókos, “crocus”), from an ancient Semitic language. The correct English form is crocus, spelled C-R-O-C-U-S.
Definition
- 1A perennial flowering plant (of the genus Crocus in the Iridaceae family). Saffron is obtained from the stamens of Crocus sativus.
- 2Any of various similar flowering plants, such as autumn crocus and prairie crocus.
- 3A deep yellow powder, the oxide of some metal (especially iron), calcined to a red or deep yellow colour.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how crocus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Other foreign terms have become so thoroughly Anglicised as to adopt English plurals, and it is sometimes difficult to decide whether the English or the original foreign form is the more correct. None but a pedant would speak of ‘the chori of an opera,’ ‘the croci in a garden,’ or ‘the dogmata of the church;’ […]
Nothing is more short-lived than the erection; like the crocus of spring, it is there for a moment, and then it is gone; one moment the penis is small, soft, and insignificant, and then in the next it is hard, rigid, and three and four times its previous size.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin crocus, from Ancient Greek κρόκος (krókos, “crocus”), from an ancient Semitic language.
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 "crocus", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).