magic bullet
"magic-bullet" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“magic bullet” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A simple remedy for a difficult or complex problem, especially a cure for a disease.
Corpus desk
Index EN-magic-bullet · magic bullet · English
magic bullet · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "M" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | magic bullet |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “magic bullet” in English
Rare enough to double-check
magic bullet is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A simple remedy for a difficult or complex problem, especially a cure for a disease.".
magic bullet doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Calque of German Zauberkugel. Coined by physician Paul Ehrlich as an allusion to the opera Der Freischütz. Compare silver bullet, from werewolf lore. The correct English form is magic bullet, spelled M-A-G-I-C- -B-U-L-L-E-T.
Definition
- 1A simple remedy for a difficult or complex problem, especially a cure for a disease.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how magic bullet appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
In recent years, penicillin-based drugs have lost some of their magic bullet status due to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
History shows that there's no magic bullet for a global financial crisis.
Etymology
Calque of German Zauberkugel. Coined by physician Paul Ehrlich as an allusion to the opera Der Freischütz. Compare silver bullet, from werewolf lore.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.