muon
/ˈmjuːɒn/
"muon" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“muon” is uncommon English (frequency #61,653 among 36,575 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #61,653
- frequency rank, English
- 36,575
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An unstable elementary particle in the lepton family, having similar properties to the electron but with a mass 207 times greater.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | muon |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmjuːɒn/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #61,653 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “muon” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
muon is uncommon English at frequency #61,653 among 36,575 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈmjuːɒn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An unstable elementary particle in the lepton family, having similar properties to the electron but with a mass 207 times greater.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for muon, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Contraction of the earlier term mu-meson; the particle has now been recategorised as a lepton. Coined by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi in 1951 in his book Elementary Particles. The correct English form is muon, spelled M-U-O-N.
Definition
- 1An unstable elementary particle in the lepton family, having similar properties to the electron but with a mass 207 times greater.
Etymology
Contraction of the earlier term mu-meson; the particle has now been recategorised as a lepton. Coined by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi in 1951 in his book Elementary Particles.
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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Using “muon”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-U-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmjuːɒn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this 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.