kaolin
/ˈkeɪ.ə.lɪn/
"kaolin" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“kaolin” is uncommon English (frequency #60,905 among 9,255 “K” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #60,905
- frequency rank, English
- 9,255
- “K” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A fine clay, rich in kaolinite, used in ceramics, papermaking, etc.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | kaolin |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkeɪ.ə.lɪn/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #60,905 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “kaolin” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
kaolin is uncommon English at frequency #60,905 among 9,255 “K” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈkeɪ.ə.lɪn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A fine clay, rich in kaolinite, used in ceramics, papermaking, etc.".
No misspelling variants are generated for kaolin in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French kaolin, François Xavier d'Entrecolles's irregular romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 高嶺土 /高岭土 (gāolǐngtǔ, “Gaoling earth”), from 高嶺 /高岭 (Gāolǐng, “High Ridge”), a village in Fuliang County, Jingdezhen Prefecture, Jiangxi Provi… The correct English form is kaolin, spelled K-A-O-L-I-N.
Definition
- 1A fine clay, rich in kaolinite, used in ceramics, papermaking, etc.
Etymology
From French kaolin, François Xavier d'Entrecolles's irregular romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 高嶺土 /高岭土 (gāolǐngtǔ, “Gaoling earth”), from 高嶺 /高岭 (Gāolǐng, “High Ridge”), a village in Fuliang County, Jingdezhen Prefecture, Jiangxi Province, that became Jingdezhen's primary source of this kind of clay during the early to mid-Qing dynasty.
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 “kaolin”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is K-A-O-L-I-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkeɪ.ə.lɪn/ (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.