meningococcus

noun

"meningococcus" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“meningococcus” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A pathogenic bacterium (Neisseria meningitidis), common cause of cerebrospinal meningitis

Corpus desk

Index EN-meningococcus · meningococcus · English

meningococcus · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-5 5 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.

Key facts for meningococcus
PropertyValue
Headwordmeningococcus
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “meningococcus” in English

meningococcusfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

meningococcus is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A pathogenic bacterium (Neisseria meningitidis), common cause of cerebrospinal meningitis".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for meningococcus, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From meningo- + -coccus. The correct English form is meningococcus, spelled M-E-N-I-N-G-O-C-O-C-C-U-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    A pathogenic bacterium (Neisseria meningitidis), common cause of cerebrospinal meningitis

Etymology

From meningo- + -coccus.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "meningococcus"?
"meningococcus" is spelled M-E-N-I-N-G-O-C-O-C-C-U-S.
What does "meningococcus" mean?
As a noun, "meningococcus" means: A pathogenic bacterium (Neisseria meningitidis), common cause of cerebrospinal meningitis
What is the origin of the word "meningococcus"?
From meningo- + -coccus. 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list