fossiliferous
"fossiliferous" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fossiliferous” is uncommon English (frequency #63,627 among 18,613 “F” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #63,627
- frequency rank, English
- 18,613
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Containing fossils.
| 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) |
Where “fossiliferous” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
fossiliferous is uncommon English at frequency #63,627 among 18,613 “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.
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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Using “fossiliferous”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-O-S-S-I-L-I-F-E-R-O-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.