hookworm
/ˈhʊkˌwɝm/
"hookworm" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hookworm” is uncommon English (frequency #90,550 among 23,837 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #90,550
- frequency rank, English
- 23,837
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of various parasitic bloodsucking roundworms which cause disease, especially the species Ancylostoma duodenale and Necator americanus, having hooked mouthparts and entering their hosts by borin...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hookworm |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈhʊkˌwɝm/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #90,550 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hookworm” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
hookworm is uncommon English at frequency #90,550 among 23,837 “H” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈhʊkˌwɝm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for hookworm in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. 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 hook + worm. The correct English form is hookworm, spelled H-O-O-K-W-O-R-M.
Definition
- 1Any of various parasitic bloodsucking roundworms which cause disease, especially the species Ancylostoma duodenale and Necator americanus, having hooked mouthparts and entering their hosts by boring through the skin.
- 2Infection with one of these parasites.
Etymology
From hook + worm.
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.
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Using “hookworm”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-O-O-K-W-O-R-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈhʊkˌwɝm/ (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.