murmuration
/ˌmɝməˈɹeɪʃən/
"murmuration" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“murmuration” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An act or instance of murmuring.
Corpus desk
Index EN-murmuration · murmuration · English
murmuration · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-5 5 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 | murmuration |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌmɝməˈɹeɪʃən/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “murmuration” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
murmuration is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌmɝməˈɹeɪʃən/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for murmuration in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: 1350–1400; Medieval Latin murmuratio (“murmuring, grumbling”). The “flock of starlings” sense is probably derived from the sound of the very large groups that starlings form at dusk. The correct English form is murmuration, spelled M-U-R-M-U-R-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1An act or instance of murmuring.
- 2A flock of starlings, in particular when swarming in swirling patterns.
- 3An emergent order in a multi-agent social system.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how murmuration appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
"Oh! I wasted most of my morning crawling to a murmuration of starlings, which I foolishly mistook for congregation of plover."
The same dynamics can be seen in starlings: On clear winter evenings, murmurations of the tiny blackish birds gather in Rome’s sunset skies, wheeling about like rustling cloth.
Etymology
1350–1400; Medieval Latin murmuratio (“murmuring, grumbling”). The “flock of starlings” sense is probably derived from the sound of the very large groups that starlings form at dusk.
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.
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 September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
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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.