hydrocephalus
"hydrocephalus" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hydrocephalus” is uncommon English (frequency #65,191 among 2,646 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #65,191
- frequency rank, English
- 2,646
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A usually congenital condition in which an abnormal accumulation of fluid in the cerebral ventricles causes enlargement of the skull and compression of the brain, destroying much of the neural tissue.
Corpus desk
Index EN-hydrocephalus · hydrocephalus · English
hydrocephalus · rank #65,191 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #65,191
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,646
- PHOTO-FINISH hypertrophic
Nearest frequency peer: hypertrophic (+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 “hydrocephalus”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Hockley
Hockley
34,817 corpus weight
- Horgan
Horgan
34,813 corpus weight
- HRA
HRA
34,812 corpus weight
- hydrocephal…
hydrocephalus
34,810 corpus weight
- hypertrophic
hypertrophic
34,809 corpus weight
- imbibe
imbibe
34,802 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “hydrocephalus” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hydrocephalus |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 13 |
| Frequency rank | #65,191 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “hydrocephalus” in English
Rare enough to double-check
hydrocephalus is uncommon English at frequency #65,191 among 2,646 “H” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A usually congenital condition in which an abnormal accumulation of fluid in the cerebral ventricles causes enlargement of the skull and compression of the brain, destroying much of the neural tissue.".
Zero misspellings are on record for hydrocephalus in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. 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: Borrowed from Ancient Greek ὑδροκέφαλον (hudroképhalon). The correct English form is hydrocephalus, spelled H-Y-D-R-O-C-E-P-H-A-L-U-S.
Definition
- 1A usually congenital condition in which an abnormal accumulation of fluid in the cerebral ventricles causes enlargement of the skull and compression of the brain, destroying much of the neural tissue.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how hydrocephalus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
She was born with a condition known as hydrocephalus, which doctors said was caused by a listeriosis infection that her mother contracted while pregnant.
Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek ὑδροκέφαλον (hudroképhalon).
Synonyms
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 "hydrocephalus", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 13 letters (nearest by frequency rank).