microcephaly
/ˌmaɪkɹoʊˈsɛfəli/
"microcephaly" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“microcephaly” is uncommon English (frequency #77,926 among 36,575 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #77,926
- frequency rank, English
- 36,575
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A neurological disorder in which the person affected has an abnormally small head due to a failure of brain growth.
Corpus desk
Index EN-microcephaly · microcephaly · English
microcephaly · rank #77,926 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #77,926
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 36,575
- PHOTO-FINISH methicillin
Nearest frequency peer: methicillin (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “microcephaly”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- messiness
messiness
22,078 corpus weight
- methicillin
methicillin
22,076 corpus weight
- microcephaly
microcephaly
22,075 corpus weight
- microsecond
microsecond
22,074 corpus weight
- misrule
misrule
22,072 corpus weight
- MMG
MMG
22,071 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “microcephaly” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | microcephaly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌmaɪkɹoʊˈsɛfəli/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #77,926 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “microcephaly” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
microcephaly is uncommon English at frequency #77,926 among 36,575 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌmaɪkɹoʊˈsɛfəli/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A neurological disorder in which the person affected has an abnormally small head due to a failure of brain growth.".
microcephaly doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From micro- + -cephaly. The correct English form is microcephaly, spelled M-I-C-R-O-C-E-P-H-A-L-Y.
Definition
- 1A neurological disorder in which the person affected has an abnormally small head due to a failure of brain growth.
Etymology
From micro- + -cephaly.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "microcephaly", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.