materia medica
"materia-medica" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“materia medica” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Synonym of pharmacology, particularly its development in early modern Europe.
Corpus desk
Index EN-materia-medica · materia medica · English
materia medica · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-7 7 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 | materia medica |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “materia medica” in English
Rare enough to double-check
materia medica is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Synonym of pharmacology, particularly its development in early modern Europe.".
Zero misspellings are on record for materia medica in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin materia (“material”) + medica (“curative, medical”). The correct English form is materia medica, spelled M-A-T-E-R-I-A- -M-E-D-I-C-A.
Definition
- 1Synonym of pharmacology, particularly its development in early modern Europe.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how materia medica appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Later on, in the Middle Ages, medical knowledge advanced to such an extent that textbooks on materia medica and germane subjects often treated this area of erotica.
Etymology
From Latin materia (“material”) + medica (“curative, medical”).
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.