menhir
/ˈmɛnhɪə/
"menhir" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“menhir” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A single tall standing stone as a monument, especially one dating to prehistoric times.
Corpus desk
Index EN-menhir · menhir · English
menhir · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 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 | menhir |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmɛnhɪə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “menhir” in English
Rare enough to double-check
menhir is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈmɛnhɪə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A single tall standing stone as a monument, especially one dating to prehistoric times.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for menhir, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: PIE word *méǵh₂s Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂sder.? Proto-Celtic *maginos Proto-Brythonic *maɣɨnder. Breton maen Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-rós Proto-Celtic *sīros Proto-Brythonic *hirder. Breton hir Breton maen-hirbor. F… The correct English form is menhir, spelled M-E-N-H-I-R.
Definition
- 1A single tall standing stone as a monument, especially one dating to prehistoric times.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how menhir appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Near-synonym: orthostat
[N]o time has passed since we lived in caves, grappled with fish at the reedy shore, buried our dead with a song, with red-ochre and pulled up our dolmens, temples and menhirs and standing stones to the glory of some indeterminate god or gods, […]
Etymology
PIE word *méǵh₂s Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂sder.? Proto-Celtic *maginos Proto-Brythonic *maɣɨnder. Breton maen Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-rós Proto-Celtic *sīros Proto-Brythonic *hirder. Breton hir Breton maen-hirbor. French menhirbor. English menhir Either borrowed from French menhir, or from its etymon Breton maen-hir, compound of maen (“stone”) + hir (“long”). Compare with Welsh maen hir, and Cornish men hir.
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.