herpes zoster
"herpes-zoster" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“herpes zoster” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An acute viral inflammation of the sensory ganglia of spinal and cranial nerves associated with a vesicular eruption and neuralgic pains, caused by reactivation of the Human herpes virus 3, in genu...
Corpus desk
Index EN-herpes-zoster · herpes zoster · English
herpes zoster · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "H" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | herpes zoster |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “herpes zoster” in English
Rare enough to double-check
herpes zoster is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An acute viral inflammation of the sensory ganglia of spinal and cranial nerves associated with a vesicular eruption and neuralgic pains, caused by reactivation of the Human herpes virus 3, in genu...".
herpes zoster doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is herpes zoster, spelled H-E-R-P-E-S- -Z-O-S-T-E-R.
Definition
- 1An acute viral inflammation of the sensory ganglia of spinal and cranial nerves associated with a vesicular eruption and neuralgic pains, caused by reactivation of the Human herpes virus 3, in genus Varicellovirus, that also causes chicken pox as primoinfection.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how herpes zoster appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
From the description, Letha felt sure Jane had herpes zoster, or shingles, which often strikes cancer patients or others with depressed immune systems. Jane spent another week in the Bubble, treated with acyclovir.
Synonyms
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.