dementia praecox

noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"dementia-praecox" is a 15-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“dementia praecox” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
16
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - schizophrenia

Key facts for dementia praecox
PropertyValue
Headworddementia praecox
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters16
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “dementia praecox” sits in English frequency

dementia praecox falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

dementia praecox is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "schizophrenia".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for dementia praecox, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Etymologically, the entry records: A Latin phrase coined by Arnold Pick in 1891, first used in German and later adopted into English. From the Latin dēmentia (“madness; insanity”) + praecox (“premature; untimely”, whence English precocious), together meaning “untimely madness” or “premature … The correct English form is dementia praecox, spelled D-E-M-E-N-T-I-A- -P-R-A-E-C-O-X.

Definition

  1. 1
    schizophrenia

Etymology

A Latin phrase coined by Arnold Pick in 1891, first used in German and later adopted into English. From the Latin dēmentia (“madness; insanity”) + praecox (“premature; untimely”, whence English precocious), together meaning “untimely madness” or “premature dementia”. Here, dēmentia carries the connotation of senile dementia.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "dementia praecox"?
"dementia praecox" is spelled D-E-M-E-N-T-I-A- -P-R-A-E-C-O-X.
What does "dementia praecox" mean?
As a noun, "dementia praecox" means: schizophrenia
What is the origin of the word "dementia praecox"?
A Latin phrase coined by Arnold Pick in 1891, first used in German and later adopted into English. From the Latin dēmentia (“madness; insanity”) + praecox (“premature; untimely”, whence English precocious), together meaning “untimely madness” or “... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “dementia praecox”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is D-E-M-E-N-T-I-A- -P-R-A-E-C-O-X - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list