desiccant
/ˈdɛsɪkənt/
"desiccant" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“desiccant” is uncommon English (frequency #90,359 among 26,416 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #90,359
- frequency rank, English
- 26,416
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A substance (such as calcium oxide or silica gel) that is used as a drying agent because of its high affinity for water.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | desiccant |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈdɛsɪkənt/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #90,359 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “desiccant” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
desiccant is uncommon English at frequency #90,359 among 26,416 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈdɛsɪkənt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A substance (such as calcium oxide or silica gel) that is used as a drying agent because of its high affinity for water.".
desiccant doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin dēsiccans, active present participle of dēsiccō, from dē- (“of; from, away from”) + siccō (“dry up”). The correct English form is desiccant, spelled D-E-S-I-C-C-A-N-T.
Definition
- 1A substance (such as calcium oxide or silica gel) that is used as a drying agent because of its high affinity for water.
Etymology
From Latin dēsiccans, active present participle of dēsiccō, from dē- (“of; from, away from”) + siccō (“dry up”).
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 “desiccant”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-E-S-I-C-C-A-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈdɛsɪkənt/ (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.