menses
/ˈmɛn.siːz/
"menses" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“menses” is uncommon English (frequency #76,119 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #76,119
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The discharge of blood and cellular tissue that flows from the inner lining of the uterus out through the vagina, occurring typically once a month in uninseminated women; a menstrual flow.
Corpus desk
Index EN-menses · menses · English
menses · rank #76,119 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #76,119
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH membranous
Nearest frequency peer: membranous (-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 “menses”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- meese
meese
23,884 corpus weight
- membranous
membranous
23,883 corpus weight
- menses
menses
23,882 corpus weight
- mesenteric
mesenteric
23,881 corpus weight
- mesoderm
mesoderm
23,880 corpus weight
- Miggy
Miggy
23,879 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “menses” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | menses |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmɛn.siːz/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #76,119 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “menses” in English
Rare enough to double-check
menses is uncommon English at frequency #76,119 among 4,057 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈmɛn.siːz/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The discharge of blood and cellular tissue that flows from the inner lining of the uterus out through the vagina, occurring typically once a month in uninseminated women; a menstrual flow.".
No misspelling variants are generated for menses in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin mēnsis (“month”), the plural being mēnsēs (“months”), corresponding to the monthly courses of women. Compare month. The correct English form is menses, spelled M-E-N-S-E-S.
Definition
- 1The discharge of blood and cellular tissue that flows from the inner lining of the uterus out through the vagina, occurring typically once a month in uninseminated women; a menstrual flow.
Etymology
From Latin mēnsis (“month”), the plural being mēnsēs (“months”), corresponding to the monthly courses of women. Compare month.
Synonyms
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.
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "menses", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).