monochord
"monochord" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“monochord” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A musical instrument for experimenting with the mathematical relations of musical sounds, consisting of a single string stretched between two bridges, one or both of which can be moved, and which s...
Corpus desk
Index EN-monochord · monochord · English
monochord · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 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 | monochord |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “monochord” in English
Rare enough to double-check
monochord is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
monochord 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 nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Latin monochordon, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek μονόχορδον (monókhordon). By surface analysis, mono- + chord. The correct English form is monochord, spelled M-O-N-O-C-H-O-R-D.
Definition
- 1A musical instrument for experimenting with the mathematical relations of musical sounds, consisting of a single string stretched between two bridges, one or both of which can be moved, and which stand upon a graduated rule for the purpose of changing and measuring the length of the part of the string between them.
- 2A stringed instrument with only one string.
- 3A bass note on a piano that has a single string.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how monochord appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
If a musician were going to give a lecture upon the mathematical part of his art, he would find a very elegant substitute for the monochord in the Chinese kin.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin monochordon, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek μονόχορδον (monókhordon). By surface analysis, mono- + chord.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.