downregulation

noun

"downregulation" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“downregulation” is uncommon English (frequency #98,039 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#98,039
frequency rank, English
3,470
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The suppression of a response to a stimulus

Corpus desk

Index EN-downregulation · downregulation · English

downregulation · rank #98,039 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #98,039
  • LEN-MEGA 14 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,470
  • PHOTO-FINISH downshift

Nearest frequency peer: downshift (+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 “downregulation”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “downregulation” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for downregulation
PropertyValue
Headworddownregulation
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters14
Frequency rank#98,039
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “downregulation” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).downregulationfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “downshift” (#98,040), “divo” (#98,035), “drily” (#98,043). Among 3,470 “D” headwords, “downregulation” is #98,039. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

downregulation is uncommon English at frequency #98,039 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for downregulation, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From down- + regulation. The correct English form is downregulation, spelled D-O-W-N-R-E-G-U-L-A-T-I-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    The suppression of a response to a stimulus
  2. 2
    The process, in the regulation of gene expression, in which the number, or activity of receptors decreases in order to decrease sensitivity

Etymology

From down- + regulation.

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

How do you spell "downregulation"?
"downregulation" is spelled D-O-W-N-R-E-G-U-L-A-T-I-O-N.
What does "downregulation" mean?
As a noun, "downregulation" means: The suppression of a response to a stimulus
What is the origin of the word "downregulation"?
From down- + regulation. 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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "downregulation", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 14 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list