duodenum
/ˌdjuːə(ʊ)ˈdiːnəm/
"duodenum" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“duodenum” is uncommon English (frequency #68,168 among 26,416 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #68,168
- frequency rank, English
- 26,416
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The first part of the small intestine, starting at the lower end of the stomach and extending to the jejunum.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | duodenum |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌdjuːə(ʊ)ˈdiːnəm/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #68,168 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “duodenum” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
duodenum is uncommon English at frequency #68,168 among 26,416 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌdjuːə(ʊ)ˈdiːnəm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The first part of the small intestine, starting at the lower end of the stomach and extending to the jejunum.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for duodenum, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Medieval Latin duodēnum digitōrum (“space of twelve digits”) in reference to its length, from duodēnī (“twelve each”) + digitōrum, genitive plural of digitus (“finger; toe; digit”). The correct English form is duodenum, spelled D-U-O-D-E-N-U-M.
Definition
- 1The first part of the small intestine, starting at the lower end of the stomach and extending to the jejunum.
Etymology
From Medieval Latin duodēnum digitōrum (“space of twelve digits”) in reference to its length, from duodēnī (“twelve each”) + digitōrum, genitive plural of digitus (“finger; toe; digit”).
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 “duodenum”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-U-O-D-E-N-U-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌdjuːə(ʊ)ˈdiːnəm/ (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.