meconium
/mɪˈkəʊnɪ.əm/noun
meconium is spelled M-E-C-O-N-I-U-M: 8 letters. It appears about once in every 13 million words in written English, the 109,062nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, meconium means “A dark green mass, the contents of the fetal intestines during the later stages of mammalian gestation, that forms the first feces of the newborn” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of meconium is meconiums.
How many letters and syllables are in meconium?
| Letters | 8: M-E-C-O-N-I-U-M |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 13 million words; the 109,062nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is meconium?
Meconium appears about once in every 13 million words in written English, the 109,062nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce meconium?
- UK /mɪˈkəʊnɪ.əm/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-meconium.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with meconium?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as meconium from its last stressed vowel (/əʊnɪəm/, British pronunciation):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: encomium.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of meconium
- meconiums plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does meconium mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A dark green mass, the contents of the fetal intestines during the later stages of mammalian gestation, that forms the first feces of the newborn.
- 2
obsoleteOpium.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate meconium?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of meconium: mec.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Meconium in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense contents of the fetal intestines:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does meconium come from?
From Latin mēcōnium (“opium; excrement of a newborn child”), from Ancient Greek μηκώνιον (mēkṓnion, “poppy-juice, opium”), from μήκων (mḗkōn, “poppy”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).