herbivorous
/(h)ɜːɹˈbɪvəɹəs/
"herbivorous" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“herbivorous” is uncommon English (frequency #65,956 among 2,646 “H” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #65,956
- frequency rank, English
- 2,646
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Feeding chiefly on plants.
Corpus desk
Index EN-herbivorous · herbivorous · English
herbivorous · rank #65,956 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #65,956
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,646
- PHOTO-FINISH heatstroke
Nearest frequency peer: heatstroke (-2 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 “herbivorous”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Hashmi
Hashmi
34,052 corpus weight
- Hauptmann
Hauptmann
34,050 corpus weight
- hcp
hcp
34,049 corpus weight
- heatsink
heatsink
34,048 corpus weight
- heatstroke
heatstroke
34,047 corpus weight
- herbivorous
herbivorous
34,045 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “herbivorous” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | herbivorous |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /(h)ɜːɹˈbɪvəɹəs/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #65,956 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “herbivorous” in English
Rare enough to double-check
herbivorous is uncommon English at frequency #65,956 among 2,646 “H” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /(h)ɜːɹˈbɪvəɹəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Feeding chiefly on plants.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for herbivorous, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Adapted borrowing of New Latin herbivorus + -ous, from Latin herba (“grass”) and -vorus, from vorō (“I devour”). The correct English form is herbivorous, spelled H-E-R-B-I-V-O-R-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Feeding chiefly on plants.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how herbivorous appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
One example of "an herbivorous fungus" is included among the terrestrial animal experiments
Etymology
Adapted borrowing of New Latin herbivorus + -ous, from Latin herba (“grass”) and -vorus, from vorō (“I devour”).
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 "herbivorous", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).