murine

/ˈmjʊəɹaɪn/

//ˈmjʊəɹaɪn// adj

"murine" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“murine” is uncommon English (frequency #50,088 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#50,088
frequency rank, English
4,057
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a mouse.

Corpus desk

Index EN-murine · murine · English

murine · rank #50,088 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #50,088
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,057
  • PHOTO-FINISH Nala

Nearest frequency peer: Nala (+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 “murine”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “murine” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for murine
PropertyValue
Headwordmurine
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
IPA/ˈmjʊəɹaɪn/
Letters6
Frequency rank#50,088
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “murine” in English

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).murinefalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “Nala” (#50,090), “MRA” (#50,085), “MPN” (#50,084). Among 4,057 “M” headwords, “murine” is #50,088. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

murine is uncommon English at frequency #50,088 among 4,057 “M” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈmjʊəɹaɪn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

murine has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Latin mūrīnus (“mouselike”). The correct English form is murine, spelled M-U-R-I-N-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a mouse.
  2. 2
    More generally, of, pertaining to, or characteristic of any rodent up to the taxonomic rank of Muroidea, most often with reference to mice and rats of the subfamily Murinae.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how murine appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. They had watched, paralysed, as, squeaking with terror, her small murine body was ripped to pieces, Tilly yipping gleefully with excitement all the while.
  2. 1977, Richard Peto⁽ᵂᴾ⁾ Are our stem cells really, then, a billion or a trillion times more "cancerproof" than murine stem cells?

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin mūrīnus (“mouselike”).

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

How do you spell "murine"?
"murine" is spelled M-U-R-I-N-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈmjʊəɹaɪn/.
What does "murine" mean?
As an adjective, "murine" means: Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a mouse.
How do you pronounce "murine"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "murine" is /ˈmjʊəɹaɪn/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "murine"?
Learned borrowing from Latin mūrīnus (“mouselike”). See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "murine", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list