encyclical
/ɛnˈsɪklɪkəl/
"encyclical" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“encyclical” is uncommon English (frequency #57,370 among 18,836 “E” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #57,370
- frequency rank, English
- 18,836
- “E” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A papal letter, intended for general circulation in the Catholic Church.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | encyclical |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɛnˈsɪklɪkəl/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #57,370 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “encyclical” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
encyclical is uncommon English at frequency #57,370 among 18,836 “E” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ɛnˈsɪklɪkəl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A papal letter, intended for general circulation in the Catholic Church.".
encyclical doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Late Latin encyclicus + -al, from Ancient Greek ἐγκύκλιος (enkúklios, “circular, general”), from ἐν- (en-) + κύκλος (kúklos, “circle”). The correct English form is encyclical, spelled E-N-C-Y-C-L-I-C-A-L.
Definition
- 1A papal letter, intended for general circulation in the Catholic Church.
Etymology
From Late Latin encyclicus + -al, from Ancient Greek ἐγκύκλιος (enkúklios, “circular, general”), from ἐν- (en-) + κύκλος (kúklos, “circle”).
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 “encyclical”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-N-C-Y-C-L-I-C-A-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɛnˈsɪklɪkəl/ (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.