nosocomial
no·so·com·i·al/ˌnɑ.səˈkoʊ.mi.əl/adjective
nosocomial is spelled N-O-S-O-C-O-M-I-A-L, 5 syllables: no·so·com·i·al. The wrong spelling people search most is nasocomial: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 91 of all searches for the word. Nosocomial is an adjective meaning “Of an infection or its cause: arising from the environment of, or treatment in, a hospital”.
How many letters and syllables are in nosocomial?
| Letters | 10: N-O-S-O-C-O-M-I-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 5: no·so·com·i·al |
| In writing | about once in every 13 million words; the 109,062nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, nasocomial, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell nosocomial?
Nosocomial is spelled N-O-S-O-C-O-M-I-A-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 91 of the searches for nosocomial in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is nosocomial?
Nosocomial appears about once in every 13 million words in written English, the 109,062nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce nosocomial?
- UK /ˌnɒ.sə(ʊ)ˈkəʊ.mi.əl/
- UK /ˌnəʊ-/
- US /ˌnɑ.səˈkoʊ.mi.əl/
Nosocomial has 5 syllables, split no·so·com·i·al in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-nosocomial.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with nosocomial?
3 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as nosocomial from its last stressed vowel (/oʊmiəl/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
What does nosocomial mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Of an infection or its cause: arising from the environment of, or treatment in, a hospital.
- 2
Of, relating to, or happening in a hospital.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Nosocomial in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | nosocomial |
| German | nosokomial, Krankenhaus- |
| Spanish | nosocomial |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does nosocomial come from?
Learned borrowing from Late Latin nosocomīum (“hospital, infirmary”) + English -al (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Nosocomīum is borrowed from Ancient Greek νοσοκομεῖον (nosokomeîon, “hospital, infirmary”), from νοσοκομέω (nosokoméō, “to tend the sick”) + -εῖον (-eîon, suffix forming nouns denoting places); νοσοκομέω (nosokoméō) is from νόσος (nósos, “disease, illness, sickness”) (further etymology uncertain) + κομέω (koméō, “to take care of, look after, tend”) (from Proto-Indo-European *kem(H)- (“to be tired; to exert oneself”)).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).