ecliptic
/ɪˈklɪp.tɪk/
"ecliptic" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ecliptic” is uncommon English (frequency #56,082 among 18,836 “E” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #56,082
- frequency rank, English
- 18,836
- “E” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The great circle on the celestial sphere that is the mean apparent path of the sun as viewed from the earth.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ecliptic |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɪˈklɪp.tɪk/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #56,082 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ecliptic” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
ecliptic is uncommon English at frequency #56,082 among 18,836 “E” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ɪˈklɪp.tɪk/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for ecliptic, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin eclīptica. So named because an eclipse can occur only when the Moon lies on this plane. The correct English form is ecliptic, spelled E-C-L-I-P-T-I-C.
Definition
- 1The great circle on the celestial sphere that is the mean apparent path of the sun as viewed from the earth.
- 2The plane in which this great circle lies.
- 3A great circle drawn on a terrestrial globe, used for illustrating and solving astronomical problems.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin eclīptica. So named because an eclipse can occur only when the Moon lies on this plane.
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 “ecliptic”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-C-L-I-P-T-I-C - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɪˈklɪp.tɪk/ (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.