gladius
/ˈɡlæd.i.əs/
"gladius" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“gladius” is uncommon English (frequency #98,164 among 2,313 “G” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #98,164
- frequency rank, English
- 2,313
- “G” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A Roman sword roughly two feet long.
Corpus desk
Index EN-gladius · gladius · English
gladius · rank #98,164 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #98,164
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,313
- PHOTO-FINISH glibly
Nearest frequency peer: glibly (+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 “gladius”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- gip
gip
1,840 corpus weight
- gladius
gladius
1,837 corpus weight
- glibly
glibly
1,836 corpus weight
- gloaming
gloaming
1,834 corpus weight
- gluconate
gluconate
1,833 corpus weight
- goalkicker
goalkicker
1,832 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “gladius” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gladius |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɡlæd.i.əs/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #98,164 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “gladius” in English
Rare enough to double-check
gladius is uncommon English at frequency #98,164 among 2,313 “G” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈɡlæd.i.əs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for gladius, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin gladius (“Roman short sword, gladius”). Doublet of glaive. The correct English form is gladius, spelled G-L-A-D-I-U-S.
Definition
- 1A Roman sword roughly two feet long.
- 2A pen, a hard internal bodypart of certain cephalopods, made of chitin-like material.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how gladius appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Finally, the Romans made the gladius—sharp, of highly-tempered steel, and strongly piercing—the first real sword (Figs. 17, 18, 19), of which only five specimens are now known to exist.
The gladius was effective either for cutting or for thrusting and was used by legionaries and auxiliaries.
Etymology
From Latin gladius (“Roman short sword, gladius”). Doublet of glaive.
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 "gladius", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).