hominin

noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"hominin" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“hominin” is uncommon English (frequency #89,462 among 2,646 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#89,462
frequency rank, English
2,646
“H” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any member of the taxonomic tribe Hominini, the evolutionary group that includes modern humans and now-extinct bipedal relatives.

Corpus desk

Index EN-hominin · hominin · English

hominin · rank #89,462 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #89,462
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,646
  • PHOTO-FINISH hols

Nearest frequency peer: hols (-1 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 “hominin”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “hominin” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for hominin
PropertyValue
Headwordhominin
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters7
Frequency rank#89,462
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “hominin” in English

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).homininfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Rare peers in the same band: “hols” (#89,461), “Honiton” (#89,463), “hootenanny” (#89,464). Among 2,646 “H” headwords, “hominin” is #89,462. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

hominin is uncommon English at frequency #89,462 among 2,646 “H” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any member of the taxonomic tribe Hominini, the evolutionary group that includes modern humans and now-extinct bipedal relatives.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for hominin, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From translingual Hominini, from the stem of Latin homo (“man”). Compare hominid. The correct English form is hominin, spelled H-O-M-I-N-I-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Any member of the taxonomic tribe Hominini, the evolutionary group that includes modern humans and now-extinct bipedal relatives.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how hominin appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. [...] prefer the third explanation for the advanced-looking features of Neandertals (Chapter 7) and the Ngandong hominins (Chapter 6), but they have had little to say about the post-Erectine archaics from China.
  2. Caspari and Lee carried out comparisons ranging from ancient hominins such as australopithecines through to Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, assessing the ratios of young adults to old adults.

Etymology

From translingual Hominini, from the stem of Latin homo (“man”). Compare hominid.

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

How do you spell "hominin"?
"hominin" is spelled H-O-M-I-N-I-N.
What does "hominin" mean?
As a noun, "hominin" means: Any member of the taxonomic tribe Hominini, the evolutionary group that includes modern humans and now-extinct bipedal relatives.
What is the origin of the word "hominin"?
From translingual Hominini, from the stem of Latin homo (“man”). Compare hominid. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "hominin", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Honiton#89,463Indyref#89,484ivories#89,493halberd#89,428

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list