Medusa
/mɪˈdjuːsə/
"medusa" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Medusa” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #25,473 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #25,473
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The youngest and only mortal of the three gorgon sisters, killed by Perseus.
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) |
Where “Medusa” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Medusa is 6 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /mɪˈdjuːsə/. Corpus data places it at rank #25,473 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "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.
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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Using “Medusa”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-E-D-U-S-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /mɪˈdjuːsə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “mesa” - see the side-by-side comparison. Medusa vs mesa
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.