mycelium
/maɪˈsi.li.əm/
"mycelium" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mycelium” is uncommon English (frequency #56,307 among 36,575 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #56,307
- frequency rank, English
- 36,575
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The vegetative part of any fungus, consisting of a mass of branching, threadlike hyphae, often underground.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mycelium |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /maɪˈsi.li.əm/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #56,307 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mycelium” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
mycelium is uncommon English at frequency #56,307 among 36,575 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /maɪˈsi.li.əm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The vegetative part of any fungus, consisting of a mass of branching, threadlike hyphae, often underground.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for mycelium in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From New Latin mycelium; synchronically, myc- + -el- + -ium, where the infix -el- is of unknown origin, perhaps introduced from a rebracketing of epithelium. The correct English form is mycelium, spelled M-Y-C-E-L-I-U-M.
Definition
- 1The vegetative part of any fungus, consisting of a mass of branching, threadlike hyphae, often underground.
Etymology
From New Latin mycelium; synchronically, myc- + -el- + -ium, where the infix -el- is of unknown origin, perhaps introduced from a rebracketing of epithelium.
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 “mycelium”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-Y-C-E-L-I-U-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /maɪˈsi.li.əm/ (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.