mycelium
/maɪˈsi.li.əm/
"mycelium" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mycelium” is uncommon English (frequency #56,307 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #56,307
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The vegetative part of any fungus, consisting of a mass of branching, threadlike hyphae, often underground.
Corpus desk
Index EN-mycelium · mycelium · English
mycelium · rank #56,307 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #56,307
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH mutilate
Nearest frequency peer: mutilate (-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 “mycelium”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- MTF
MTF
43,700 corpus weight
- multibillion
multibillion
43,699 corpus weight
- multicellul…
multicellular
43,698 corpus weight
- mutilate
mutilate
43,696 corpus weight
- mycelium
mycelium
43,694 corpus weight
- necropolis
necropolis
43,689 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “mycelium” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| 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) |
Long-tail rank of “mycelium” in English
Rare enough to double-check
mycelium is uncommon English at frequency #56,307 among 4,057 “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
How do you spell "mycelium"?
What does "mycelium" mean?
How do you pronounce "mycelium"?
What is the origin of the word "mycelium"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "mycelium", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).