methylene
/ˈmɛθɪliːn/
"methylene" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“methylene” is uncommon English (frequency #62,318 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #62,318
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The divalent group –CH₂– in which the free valencies are part of single bonds.
Corpus desk
Index EN-methylene · methylene · English
methylene · rank #62,318 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #62,318
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH Merica
Nearest frequency peer: Merica (-2 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 “methylene”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- McQuaid
McQuaid
37,690 corpus weight
- MDF
MDF
37,689 corpus weight
- Merica
Merica
37,685 corpus weight
- methylene
methylene
37,683 corpus weight
- minaret
minaret
37,679 corpus weight
- minter
minter
37,677 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “methylene” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | methylene |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmɛθɪliːn/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #62,318 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “methylene” in English
Rare enough to double-check
methylene is uncommon English at frequency #62,318 among 4,057 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈmɛθɪliːn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
methylene doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: French méthylène, from Ancient Greek μέθυ (méthu, “wine”) + ὕλη (húlē, “wood”). By surface analysis, meth- + -ylene. The correct English form is methylene, spelled M-E-T-H-Y-L-E-N-E.
Definition
- 1The divalent group –CH₂– in which the free valencies are part of single bonds.
- 2The same group, present as a repeating unit, in aliphatic compounds with names such as hexamethylenediamine.
- 3The unstable carbene :CH₂
Etymology
French méthylène, from Ancient Greek μέθυ (méthu, “wine”) + ὕλη (húlē, “wood”). By surface analysis, meth- + -ylene.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "methylene", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).