meconium
/mɪˈkəʊnɪ.əm/
"meconium" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“meconium” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - 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.
Corpus desk
Index EN-meconium · meconium · English
meconium · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 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 | meconium |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /mɪˈkəʊnɪ.əm/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “meconium” in English
Rare enough to double-check
meconium is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /mɪˈkəʊnɪ.əm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for meconium in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin mēcōnium (“opium; excrement of a newborn child”), from Ancient Greek μηκώνιον (mēkṓnion, “poppy-juice, opium”), from μήκων (mḗkōn, “poppy”). The correct English form is meconium, spelled M-E-C-O-N-I-U-M.
Definition
- 1A dark green mass, the contents of the fetal intestines during the later stages of mammalian gestation, that forms the first feces of the newborn.
- 2Opium.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how meconium appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The meconium is dark brownish-green in color. The first meconium passed is semi-solid, having been partially dried out in the large intestine.
Etymology
From Latin mēcōnium (“opium; excrement of a newborn child”), from Ancient Greek μηκώνιον (mēkṓnion, “poppy-juice, opium”), from μήκων (mḗkōn, “poppy”).
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.