narcolepsy
/ˈnɑː(ɹ)kəˌlɛpsi/
"narcolepsy" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“narcolepsy” is uncommon English (frequency #53,127 among 1,534 “N” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #53,127
- frequency rank, English
- 1,534
- “N” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A disorder characterized by sudden and uncontrollable attacks of deep sleep, often brief, sometimes accompanied by paralysis and hallucinations.
Corpus desk
Index EN-narcolepsy · narcolepsy · English
narcolepsy · rank #53,127 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #53,127
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,534
- PHOTO-FINISH nanoparticle
Nearest frequency peer: nanoparticle (-1 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 “narcolepsy”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Murfreesboro
Murfreesboro
46,878 corpus weight
- nanna
nanna
46,876 corpus weight
- nanoparticle
nanoparticle
46,875 corpus weight
- narcolepsy
narcolepsy
46,874 corpus weight
- Netherland
Netherland
46,872 corpus weight
- neverending
neverending
46,871 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “narcolepsy” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | narcolepsy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈnɑː(ɹ)kəˌlɛpsi/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #53,127 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “narcolepsy” in English
Rare enough to double-check
narcolepsy is uncommon English at frequency #53,127 among 1,534 “N” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈnɑː(ɹ)kəˌlɛpsi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A disorder characterized by sudden and uncontrollable attacks of deep sleep, often brief, sometimes accompanied by paralysis and hallucinations.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for narcolepsy, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French narcolepsie. By surface analysis, narco- + -lepsy, from Ancient Greek ναρκόω (narkóō, “put to sleep”) + λῆψις (lêpsis, “seizure”). The correct English form is narcolepsy, spelled N-A-R-C-O-L-E-P-S-Y.
Definition
- 1A disorder characterized by sudden and uncontrollable attacks of deep sleep, often brief, sometimes accompanied by paralysis and hallucinations.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how narcolepsy appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Excitement-induced narcolepsy caused him to sleep through the most important events of his life.
Etymology
From French narcolepsie. By surface analysis, narco- + -lepsy, from Ancient Greek ναρκόω (narkóō, “put to sleep”) + λῆψις (lêpsis, “seizure”).
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "narcolepsy", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).