fullerene
/ˈfʊləɹˌin/
"fullerene" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fullerene” is uncommon English (frequency #97,049 among 18,613 “F” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #97,049
- frequency rank, English
- 18,613
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of a class of allotropes of carbon having hollow molecules whose atoms lie at the vertices of a polyhedron having 12 pentagonal and 2 or more hexagonal faces.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fullerene |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfʊləɹˌin/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #97,049 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “fullerene” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
fullerene is uncommon English at frequency #97,049 among 18,613 “F” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈfʊləɹˌin/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
fullerene doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: After Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome, + -ene. The correct English form is fullerene, spelled F-U-L-L-E-R-E-N-E.
Definition
- 1Any of a class of allotropes of carbon having hollow molecules whose atoms lie at the vertices of a polyhedron having 12 pentagonal and 2 or more hexagonal faces.
- 2Any closed-cage compound having twenty or more carbon atoms consisting entirely of 3-coordinate carbon atoms.
- 3The class of carbon allotropes consisting of tubular carbon molecules (carbon nanotubes) and spheroidal carbon molecules (traditional fullerenes).
Etymology
After Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome, + -ene.
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 “fullerene”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-U-L-L-E-R-E-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈfʊləɹˌin/ (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.