Heracles
/ˈhɛɹəkliːz/
"heracles" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Heracles” is uncommon English (frequency #53,596 among 23,837 “H” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #53,596
- frequency rank, English
- 23,837
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Son of Zeus and Alcmene, a celebrated hero who possessed exceptional strength. Most famous for his 12 labours performed to redeem himself after killing his family.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Heracles |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈhɛɹəkliːz/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #53,596 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Heracles” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Heracles is uncommon English at frequency #53,596 among 23,837 “H” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed /ˈhɛɹəkliːz/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Son of Zeus and Alcmene, a celebrated hero who possessed exceptional strength. Most famous for his 12 labours performed to redeem himself after killing his family.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for Heracles, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Ancient Greek Ἡρακλῆς (Hēraklês), from Ἥρα (Hḗra, “Hera”) + κλέος (kléos, “glory”). The correct English form is Heracles, spelled H-E-R-A-C-L-E-S.
Definition
- 1Son of Zeus and Alcmene, a celebrated hero who possessed exceptional strength. Most famous for his 12 labours performed to redeem himself after killing his family.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek Ἡρακλῆς (Hēraklês), from Ἥρα (Hḗra, “Hera”) + κλέος (kléos, “glory”).
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 “Heracles”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-E-R-A-C-L-E-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈhɛɹəkliːz/ (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.