halitosis
/hæl.ɪˈtəʊ.sɪs/
"halitosis" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“halitosis” is uncommon English (frequency #84,335 among 23,837 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #84,335
- frequency rank, English
- 23,837
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The condition of having stale or foul-smelling breath.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | halitosis |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /hæl.ɪˈtəʊ.sɪs/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #84,335 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “halitosis” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
halitosis is uncommon English at frequency #84,335 among 23,837 “H” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /hæl.ɪˈtəʊ.sɪs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The condition of having stale or foul-smelling breath.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for halitosis, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Coined by doctor Joseph William Howe in 1874 and described as being derived from the Latin hālitus (literally “whiff, breath”) and the Ancient Greek νόσος (nósos, literally “disease”). It can be also understood as combination of the Latin hālitus and the En… The correct English form is halitosis, spelled H-A-L-I-T-O-S-I-S.
Definition
- 1The condition of having stale or foul-smelling breath.
Etymology
Coined by doctor Joseph William Howe in 1874 and described as being derived from the Latin hālitus (literally “whiff, breath”) and the Ancient Greek νόσος (nósos, literally “disease”). It can be also understood as combination of the Latin hālitus and the English suffix -osis.
Synonyms
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 “halitosis”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-A-L-I-T-O-S-I-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /hæl.ɪˈtəʊ.sɪs/ (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.