germline
"germline" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“germline” is uncommon English (frequency #77,705 among 2,313 “G” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #77,705
- frequency rank, English
- 2,313
- “G” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Those cells of an individual that have genetic material that could be passed to offspring; the source of gametes.
Corpus desk
Index EN-germline · germline · English
germline · rank #77,705 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #77,705
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,313
- PHOTO-FINISH genny
Nearest frequency peer: genny (-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 “germline”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Garcetti
Garcetti
22,301 corpus weight
- Geneseo
Geneseo
22,298 corpus weight
- genny
genny
22,297 corpus weight
- germline
germline
22,296 corpus weight
- glinting
glinting
22,293 corpus weight
- glitched
glitched
22,292 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “germline” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | germline |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #77,705 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “germline” in English
Rare enough to double-check
germline is uncommon English at frequency #77,705 among 2,313 “G” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Those cells of an individual that have genetic material that could be passed to offspring; the source of gametes.".
Zero misspellings are on record for germline in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From germ + line. The correct English form is germline, spelled G-E-R-M-L-I-N-E.
Definition
- 1Those cells of an individual that have genetic material that could be passed to offspring; the source of gametes.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how germline appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Germline gene therapy is a controversial, complex topic; only through many open discussions of this topic by a broad spectrum of our society will we gain the wisdom needed for proper evaluation of the factors that must be considered before we complete initiation of these protocols.
Etymology
From germ + line.
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 "germline", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).