electrum
/ɪˈlɛktɹəm/
"electrum" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“electrum” is uncommon English (frequency #95,933 among 2,246 “E” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #95,933
- frequency rank, English
- 2,246
- “E” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Amber.
Corpus desk
Index EN-electrum · electrum · English
electrum · rank #95,933 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #95,933
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,246
- PHOTO-FINISH elephantine
Nearest frequency peer: elephantine (+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 “electrum”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- earthmoving
earthmoving
4,073 corpus weight
- Eber
Eber
4,072 corpus weight
- electrum
electrum
4,068 corpus weight
- elephantine
elephantine
4,067 corpus weight
- emasculate
emasculate
4,066 corpus weight
- emasculation
emasculation
4,065 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “electrum” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | electrum |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɪˈlɛktɹəm/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #95,933 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “electrum” in English
Rare enough to double-check
electrum is uncommon English at frequency #95,933 among 2,246 “E” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ɪˈlɛktɹəm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for electrum in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin ēlectrum, from Latin elector. The correct English form is electrum, spelled E-L-E-C-T-R-U-M.
Definition
- 1Amber.
- 2An alloy of gold and silver, used by the ancients; now specifically a natural alloy with between 20 and 50 per cent silver.
- 3German silver plate.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how electrum appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Native gold almost always contains silver in amounts varying widely between 5 and 50 per cent. This natural alloy is known as electrum although in classical antiquity where the word originated it seems to have been used for an artificial alloy of the two metals.
A natural alloy containing more than 20 per cent silver is called electrum, and was regarded by the ancients as a different metal from gold.
Etymology
From Latin ēlectrum, from Latin elector.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "electrum", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).