ligase
/ˈlɪɡeɪz/
"ligase" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ligase” is uncommon English (frequency #89,551 among 2,297 “L” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #89,551
- frequency rank, English
- 2,297
- “L” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any of a group of enzymes that catalyze the binding of two molecules; synthetase.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ligase · ligase · English
ligase · rank #89,551 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #89,551
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH lipophilic
Nearest frequency peer: lipophilic (+3 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 “ligase”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Letourneau
Letourneau
10,455 corpus weight
- ligase
ligase
10,450 corpus weight
- lipophilic
lipophilic
10,447 corpus weight
- livability
livability
10,444 corpus weight
- Livi
Livi
10,443 corpus weight
- LMR
LMR
10,441 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “ligase” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ligase |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈlɪɡeɪz/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #89,551 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “ligase” in English
Rare enough to double-check
ligase is uncommon English at frequency #89,551 among 2,297 “L” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈlɪɡeɪz/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of a group of enzymes that catalyze the binding of two molecules; synthetase.".
ligase has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From lig- + -ase. The correct English form is ligase, spelled L-I-G-A-S-E.
Definition
- 1Any of a group of enzymes that catalyze the binding of two molecules; synthetase.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how ligase appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The glue is an enzyme called ligase, which stitches together loose sentences of DNA whenever it comes across them.
Etymology
From lig- + -ase.
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 "ligase", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).