hyphae

/ˈhaɪfi/

//ˈhaɪfi// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"hyphae" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“hyphae” is uncommon English (frequency #56,816 among 2,646 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#56,816
frequency rank, English
2,646
“H” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - plural of hypha

Corpus desk

Index EN-hyphae · hyphae · English

hyphae · rank #56,816 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #56,816
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,646
  • PHOTO-FINISH hydrologic

Nearest frequency peer: hydrologic (-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 “hyphae”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “hyphae” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for hyphae
PropertyValue
Headwordhyphae
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈhaɪfi/
Letters6
Frequency rank#56,816
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “hyphae” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).hyphaefalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “hydrologic” (#56,815), “ident” (#56,817), “idyll” (#56,818). Among 2,646 “H” headwords, “hyphae” is #56,816. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

hyphae is uncommon English at frequency #56,816 among 2,646 “H” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈhaɪfi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "plural of hypha".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for hyphae, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is hyphae, spelled H-Y-P-H-A-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    plural of hypha

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

How do you spell "hyphae"?
"hyphae" is spelled H-Y-P-H-A-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈhaɪfi/.
What does "hyphae" mean?
As a noun, "hyphae" means: plural of hypha
How do you pronounce "hyphae"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "hyphae" is /ˈhaɪfi/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "hyphae" come from?
"hyphae" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "hyphae", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

indent#56,826indium#56,828Hellas#56,799heaved#56,798

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list