fossiliferous
"fossiliferous" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fossiliferous” is uncommon English (frequency #63,627 among 2,507 “F” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #63,627
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Containing fossils.
Corpus desk
Index EN-fossiliferous · fossiliferous · English
fossiliferous · rank #63,627 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #63,627
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH fortieth
Nearest frequency peer: fortieth (-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 “fossiliferous”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- footfall
footfall
36,377 corpus weight
- fortieth
fortieth
36,375 corpus weight
- fossilifero…
fossiliferous
36,374 corpus weight
- fractious
fractious
36,373 corpus weight
- Freitas
Freitas
36,370 corpus weight
- functionary
functionary
36,367 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “fossiliferous” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fossiliferous |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 13 |
| Frequency rank | #63,627 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “fossiliferous” in English
Rare enough to double-check
fossiliferous is uncommon English at frequency #63,627 among 2,507 “F” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Containing fossils.".
Zero misspellings are on record for fossiliferous in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From fossil + -i- + -ferous. The correct English form is fossiliferous, spelled F-O-S-S-I-L-I-F-E-R-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Containing fossils.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how fossiliferous appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Having already described him [the whale] in most of his present habitatory and anatomical peculiarities, it now remains to magnify him in an archæological, fossiliferous, and antediluvian point of view.
The area contains a great thickness of well exposed fossiliferous, marine strata of uppermost Cretaceous and Eocene age, and it is felt that the most continuous and complete section may be found here.
Etymology
From fossil + -i- + -ferous.
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 "fossiliferous", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 13 letters (nearest by frequency rank).