humus
/ˈhjuːməs/
"humus" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“humus” is uncommon English (frequency #60,868 among 2,646 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #60,868
- frequency rank, English
- 2,646
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A large group of natural organic compounds, found in the soil, formed from the chemical and biological decomposition of plant and animal residues and from the synthetic activity of microorganisms.
Corpus desk
Index EN-humus · humus · English
humus · rank #60,868 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #60,868
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,646
- PHOTO-FINISH houser
Nearest frequency peer: houser (-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 “humus”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- hopscotch
hopscotch
39,136 corpus weight
- hornblower
hornblower
39,135 corpus weight
- houser
houser
39,134 corpus weight
- humus
humus
39,133 corpus weight
- Hurwitz
Hurwitz
39,131 corpus weight
- hydraulical…
hydraulically
39,130 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “humus” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | humus |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈhjuːməs/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #60,868 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “humus” in English
Rare enough to double-check
humus is uncommon English at frequency #60,868 among 2,646 “H” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈhjuːməs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A large group of natural organic compounds, found in the soil, formed from the chemical and biological decomposition of plant and animal residues and from the synthetic activity of microorganisms.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for humus in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin humus. The correct English form is humus, spelled H-U-M-U-S.
Definition
- 1A large group of natural organic compounds, found in the soil, formed from the chemical and biological decomposition of plant and animal residues and from the synthetic activity of microorganisms.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin humus.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "humus", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).