heterotrophic
"heterotrophic" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“heterotrophic” is uncommon English (frequency #97,107 among 23,837 “H” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #97,107
- frequency rank, English
- 23,837
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Being a heterotroph.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | heterotrophic |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 13 |
| Frequency rank | #97,107 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “heterotrophic” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
heterotrophic is uncommon English at frequency #97,107 among 23,837 “H” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for heterotrophic, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From hetero- + -trophic. The correct English form is heterotrophic, spelled H-E-T-E-R-O-T-R-O-P-H-I-C.
Definition
- 1Being a heterotroph.
- 2Relating to heterotrophy.
Etymology
From hetero- + -trophic.
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 “heterotrophic”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-E-T-E-R-O-T-R-O-P-H-I-C - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.