megafauna

noun

"megafauna" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“megafauna” is uncommon English (frequency #86,506 among 36,575 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#86,506
frequency rank, English
36,575
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The large animals of a given region or time, considered as a group.

Key facts for megafauna
PropertyValue
Headwordmegafauna
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Frequency rank#86,506
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “megafauna” sits in English frequency

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

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

megafauna is uncommon English at frequency #86,506 among 36,575 “M” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

megafauna doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: From mega- + fauna. The correct English form is megafauna, spelled M-E-G-A-F-A-U-N-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    The large animals of a given region or time, considered as a group.
  2. 2
    A treatise on such a group of large animals.

Etymology

From mega- + fauna.

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 "megafauna"?
"megafauna" is spelled M-E-G-A-F-A-U-N-A.
What does "megafauna" mean?
As a noun, "megafauna" means: The large animals of a given region or time, considered as a group.
What is the origin of the word "megafauna"?
From mega- + fauna. 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.

Using “megafauna”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is M-E-G-A-F-A-U-N-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words

Other uncommon English words near this rank

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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list