megacity

noun

"megacity" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“megacity” is uncommon English (frequency #97,296 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#97,296
frequency rank, English
4,057
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A very large city; a megalopolis.

Corpus desk

Index EN-megacity · megacity · English

megacity · rank #97,296 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #97,296
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,057
  • PHOTO-FINISH Meiko

Nearest frequency peer: Meiko (+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.

Long-tail ranks near “megacity”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “megacity” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for megacity
PropertyValue
Headwordmegacity
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters8
Frequency rank#97,296
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “megacity” in English

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).megacityfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Rare peers in the same band: “Meiko” (#97,297), “meller” (#97,298), “McSweeney” (#97,293). Among 4,057 “M” headwords, “megacity” is #97,296. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

megacity is uncommon English at frequency #97,296 among 4,057 “M” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A very large city; a megalopolis.".

No misspelling variants are generated for megacity in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Etymologically, the entry records: From mega- + city. The correct English form is megacity, spelled M-E-G-A-C-I-T-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    A very large city; a megalopolis.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how megacity appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Why, for instance, do water users in a megacity like Lagos not pay an extra charge to get cesspits pumped out?
  2. For the past four decades, the world’s fastest developing delta has been the Pearl River Delta (PRD) in the province of Guangdong in southern China. The delta area in the Pearl River has been transformed from a predominantly agricultural landscape into one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas, encompassing such megacities as Guangzhou, Dongguan, Shen…

Etymology

From mega- + city.

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); 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

How do you spell "megacity"?
"megacity" is spelled M-E-G-A-C-I-T-Y.
What does "megacity" mean?
As a noun, "megacity" means: A very large city; a megalopolis.
What is the origin of the word "megacity"?
From mega- + city. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "megacity", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list