foraminifera
/ˌfɒɹəmɪˈnɪfəɹə/
"foraminifera" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“foraminifera” is uncommon English (frequency #83,256 among 18,613 “F” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #83,256
- frequency rank, English
- 18,613
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Synonym of foraminifer (“any of a large group of aquatic amoeboid protists of the subphylum Foraminifera, characterized by streaming granular ectoplasm that among other things is used for catching ...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | foraminifera |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌfɒɹəmɪˈnɪfəɹə/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #83,256 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “foraminifera” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
foraminifera is uncommon English at frequency #83,256 among 18,613 “F” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌfɒɹəmɪˈnɪfəɹə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Synonym of foraminifer (“any of a large group of aquatic amoeboid protists of the subphylum Foraminifera, characterized by streaming granular ectoplasm that among other things is used for catching ...".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for foraminifera, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from New Latin Foraminifera (subphylum name), from French foraminifère (“foraminifer, foraminifera”), from French Foraminifères, coined by the French naturalist Alcide d’Orbigny (1802–1857) in an 1826 article. Foraminifère is derived from … The correct English form is foraminifera, spelled F-O-R-A-M-I-N-I-F-E-R-A.
Definition
- 1Synonym of foraminifer (“any of a large group of aquatic amoeboid protists of the subphylum Foraminifera, characterized by streaming granular ectoplasm that among other things is used for catching food, often with a calcareous shell with many holes through which pseudopodia protrude”).
Etymology
Learned borrowing from New Latin Foraminifera (subphylum name), from French foraminifère (“foraminifer, foraminifera”), from French Foraminifères, coined by the French naturalist Alcide d’Orbigny (1802–1857) in an 1826 article. Foraminifère is derived from Latin forāmina (“apertures, holes”) + -fer (“-bearing”).
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 “foraminifera”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-O-R-A-M-I-N-I-F-E-R-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌfɒɹəmɪˈnɪfəɹə/ (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.