Medusa
/mɪˈdjuːsə/
"medusa" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Medusa” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #25,473. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #25,473
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The youngest and only mortal of the three gorgon sisters, killed by Perseus.
Corpus desk
Index EN-medusa · Medusa · English
Medusa · rank #25,473 · 8 variants · 7 confusables
- FREQ-MID #25,473
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 7 pairs
- VAR-MID 8 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH medallion
Nearest frequency peer: medallion (-1 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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “Medusa”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- McPherson
McPherson
74,531 corpus weight
- mech
mech
74,530 corpus weight
- medallion
medallion
74,529 corpus weight
- Medusa
Medusa
74,528 corpus weight
- Merseyside
Merseyside
74,527 corpus weight
- metaphorical
metaphorical
74,526 corpus weight
What this shows “Medusa” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Medusa |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /mɪˈdjuːsə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #25,473 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “Medusa”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 8 spelling variants around Medusa (IPA /mɪˈdjuːsə/), aproper noun. Corpus frequency is #25,473 among 4,057 “M” headwords. Dominant gloss: "The youngest and only mortal of the three gorgon sisters, killed by Perseus.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for Medusa, with forms such as "emdusa", "mdeusa", and "meddusa". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "mesa", "Musa", "modus", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English Medusa, Meduse, from Latin Medūsa, from Ancient Greek Μέδουσα (Médousa), from μέδω (médō, “rule over”). The correct English form is Medusa, spelled M-E-D-U-S-A.
Definition
- 1The youngest and only mortal of the three gorgon sisters, killed by Perseus.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how Medusa appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
1895, Adolf Furtwängler, Eugenie Strong (editor and translator), Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture: A Series of Essays on the History of Art, 2010, →ISBN, page 201, On an Attic vase of the middle of the fifth century the head of Medusa in the hand of Perseus is represented as that of a beautiful woman free from any distortion. This led us to conclude (supra…
It will be suggested here that the myth of Perseus, involving the decapitation of Medusa, is a narrative version of ritual.
Etymology
From Middle English Medusa, Meduse, from Latin Medūsa, from Ancient Greek Μέδουσα (Médousa), from μέδω (médō, “rule over”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- emdusa
- mdeusa
- meddusa
- medsua
- meduas
- medussa
- meudsa
- mmedusa
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Medusa - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "Medusa", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).