heme
/hiːm/
"heme" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“heme” is uncommon English (frequency #54,830 among 23,837 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,830
- frequency rank, English
- 23,837
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The component of hemoglobin (and other hemoproteins) responsible for binding oxygen. It consists of an iron ion that binds oxygen and a porphyrin ring that binds the globin molecules; one molecule ...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | heme |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /hiːm/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #54,830 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “heme” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
heme is uncommon English at frequency #54,830 among 23,837 “H” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /hiːm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The component of hemoglobin (and other hemoproteins) responsible for binding oxygen. It consists of an iron ion that binds oxygen and a porphyrin ring that binds the globin molecules; one molecule ...".
No misspelling variants are generated for heme in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Back-formation from hemoglobin. The correct English form is heme, spelled H-E-M-E.
Definition
- 1The component of hemoglobin (and other hemoproteins) responsible for binding oxygen. It consists of an iron ion that binds oxygen and a porphyrin ring that binds the globin molecules; one molecule binds one molecule of oxygen.
Etymology
Back-formation from hemoglobin.
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 “heme”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-E-M-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /hiːm/ (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.