metathesis
/məˈtæ.θə.sɪs/
"metathesis" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“metathesis” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The transposition of letters, syllables or sounds within a word, such as in ask as /æks/.
Corpus desk
Index EN-metathesis · metathesis · English
metathesis · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 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 | metathesis |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /məˈtæ.θə.sɪs/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “metathesis” in English
Rare enough to double-check
metathesis is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /məˈtæ.θə.sɪs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for metathesis, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Late Latin metathesis, from Ancient Greek μετάθεσις (metáthesis), from μετά (metá, “among”) + θέσις (thésis, “placement”). The correct English form is metathesis, spelled M-E-T-A-T-H-E-S-I-S.
Definition
- 1The transposition of letters, syllables or sounds within a word, such as in ask as /æks/.
- 2The double decomposition of inorganic salts.
- 3The breaking and reforming of double bonds in olefins in which substituent groups are swapped.
Etymology
Borrowed from Late Latin metathesis, from Ancient Greek μετάθεσις (metáthesis), from μετά (metá, “among”) + θέσις (thésis, “placement”).
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.