hydrocephalus
"hydrocephalus" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hydrocephalus” is uncommon English (frequency #65,191 among 23,837 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #65,191
- frequency rank, English
- 23,837
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 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.
| 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) |
Where “hydrocephalus” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
hydrocephalus is uncommon English at frequency #65,191 among 23,837 “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.
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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Using “hydrocephalus”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-Y-D-R-O-C-E-P-H-A-L-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.