flocculate
"flocculate" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“flocculate” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To collect (suspended particles, sediment, etc.) into loose, fluffy aggregations resembling tufts of wool.
Corpus desk
Index EN-flocculate · flocculate · English
flocculate · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "F" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | flocculate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “flocculate” in English
Rare enough to double-check
flocculate is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To collect (suspended particles, sediment, etc.) into loose, fluffy aggregations resembling tufts of wool.".
flocculate has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Scientific internationalism; from Latin flocculus + -ate (etymology 1, 2 and 3), diminutive of floccus (“a lock, tuft”). The correct English form is flocculate, spelled F-L-O-C-C-U-L-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1To collect (suspended particles, sediment, etc.) into loose, fluffy aggregations resembling tufts of wool.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how flocculate appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
When applied to clay soils it [lime] binds the small particles together, or flocculates them.
For example, when the Mississippi water flows into the saline water of the Gulf of Mexico, much of the matter that was held suspended in the river-water is flocculated at once, so that it can subside. Such action as this is one prime cause of the formation of deltas, for the flocculation of fine mud by salt is common to all rivers that reach the sea.
Etymology
Scientific internationalism; from Latin flocculus + -ate (etymology 1, 2 and 3), diminutive of floccus (“a lock, tuft”).
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.