glaucous
/ˈɡlɔː.kəs/
"glaucous" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“glaucous” is uncommon English (frequency #82,334 among 18,276 “G” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #82,334
- frequency rank, English
- 18,276
- “G” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of a pale grey or bluish-green, especially when covered with a powdery residue.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | glaucous |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈɡlɔː.kəs/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #82,334 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “glaucous” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
glaucous is uncommon English at frequency #82,334 among 18,276 “G” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈɡlɔː.kəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for glaucous in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin glaucus, from Ancient Greek γλαυκός (glaukós, “blue-green, blue-grey”), 1670s. See Irish glas. The correct English form is glaucous, spelled G-L-A-U-C-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Of a pale grey or bluish-green, especially when covered with a powdery residue.
- 2Covered with a bloom or a pale powdery covering, regardless of colour.
Etymology
From Latin glaucus, from Ancient Greek γλαυκός (glaukós, “blue-green, blue-grey”), 1670s. See Irish glas.
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 “glaucous”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-L-A-U-C-O-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɡlɔː.kəs/ (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.