necrophilia
/ˌnɛkɹə(ʊ)ˈfɪlɪə/
"necrophilia" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“necrophilia” is uncommon English (frequency #75,232 among 24,391 “N” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #75,232
- frequency rank, English
- 24,391
- “N” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A pathological attraction to dead bodies.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | necrophilia |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌnɛkɹə(ʊ)ˈfɪlɪə/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #75,232 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “necrophilia” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
necrophilia is uncommon English at frequency #75,232 among 24,391 “N” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌnɛkɹə(ʊ)ˈfɪlɪə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
necrophilia has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From necro- (Ancient Greek νεκρός (nekrós, “corpse, dead”)) + -philia (Ancient Greek φιλία (philía, “affection”)), after German Nekrophilie (in Krafft-Ebing 1887). The correct English form is necrophilia, spelled N-E-C-R-O-P-H-I-L-I-A.
Definition
- 1A pathological attraction to dead bodies.
- 2Sexual activity with corpses.
- 3A pathological fascination with death.
Etymology
From necro- (Ancient Greek νεκρός (nekrós, “corpse, dead”)) + -philia (Ancient Greek φιλία (philía, “affection”)), after German Nekrophilie (in Krafft-Ebing 1887).
Synonyms
Antonyms
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 “necrophilia”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is N-E-C-R-O-P-H-I-L-I-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌnɛkɹə(ʊ)ˈfɪlɪə/ (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.