hominy
/ˈhɒmɪni/
"hominy" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hominy” is uncommon English (frequency #96,058 among 23,837 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #96,058
- frequency rank, English
- 23,837
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A food made from hulled corn (maize) kernels soaked in lye water, rinsed, then cooked and eaten; or, the rinsed kernels are dried and coarsely ground into hominy grits.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hominy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈhɒmɪni/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #96,058 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hominy” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
hominy is uncommon English at frequency #96,058 among 23,837 “H” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈhɒmɪni/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A food made from hulled corn (maize) kernels soaked in lye water, rinsed, then cooked and eaten; or, the rinsed kernels are dried and coarsely ground into hominy grits.".
hominy has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: First recorded in 1629. From Powhatan ("Virginia Algonquian"), though the exact source word is in question: suggestions include uskatahomen, appuminnéonash (“parched corn”), and rokohamin (“parched, ground corn”), the last yielding also the unclipped rockah… The correct English form is hominy, spelled H-O-M-I-N-Y.
Definition
- 1A food made from hulled corn (maize) kernels soaked in lye water, rinsed, then cooked and eaten; or, the rinsed kernels are dried and coarsely ground into hominy grits.
Etymology
First recorded in 1629. From Powhatan ("Virginia Algonquian"), though the exact source word is in question: suggestions include uskatahomen, appuminnéonash (“parched corn”), and rokohamin (“parched, ground corn”), the last yielding also the unclipped rockahominy.
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 “hominy”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-O-M-I-N-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈhɒmɪni/ (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.