lacrimal
/ˈlak.ɹɪm.əl/
"lacrimal" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lacrimal” is uncommon English (frequency #81,489 among 16,425 “L” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #81,489
- frequency rank, English
- 16,425
- “L” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of or relating to tears or the tear-secreting organs.
Corpus desk
Index EN-lacrimal · lacrimal · English
lacrimal · rank #81,489 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #81,489
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 16,425
- PHOTO-FINISH lackland
Nearest frequency peer: lackland (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “lacrimal”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- kudu
kudu
18,519 corpus weight
- kudzu
kudzu
18,518 corpus weight
- kultur
kultur
18,517 corpus weight
- lackland
lackland
18,513 corpus weight
- lacrimal
lacrimal
18,512 corpus weight
- laterite
laterite
18,508 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “lacrimal” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | lacrimal |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈlak.ɹɪm.əl/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #81,489 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “lacrimal” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
lacrimal is uncommon English at frequency #81,489 among 16,425 “L” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈlak.ɹɪm.əl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for lacrimal, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. 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: Borrowed from Medieval Latin lacrimālis, from lacrima (“a tear”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix). Doublet of lachrymal. The correct English form is lacrimal, spelled L-A-C-R-I-M-A-L.
Definition
- 1Of or relating to tears or the tear-secreting organs.
- 2Alternative spelling of lachrymal.
Etymology
Borrowed from Medieval Latin lacrimālis, from lacrima (“a tear”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix). Doublet of lachrymal.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "lacrimal", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency 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.