occipital bone

noun

"occipital-bone" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“occipital bone” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
14
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The bone at the back of the skull in humans and various other animals.

Key facts for occipital bone
PropertyValue
Headwordoccipital bone
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters14
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “occipital bone” sits in English frequency

occipital bone falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

occipital bone is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The bone at the back of the skull in humans and various other animals.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for occipital bone, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin occiput; compare ob- (“towards, against”) and caput (“head”) The correct English form is occipital bone, spelled O-C-C-I-P-I-T-A-L- -B-O-N-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    The bone at the back of the skull in humans and various other animals.

Etymology

From Latin occiput; compare ob- (“towards, against”) and caput (“head”)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "occipital bone"?
"occipital bone" is spelled O-C-C-I-P-I-T-A-L- -B-O-N-E.
What does "occipital bone" mean?
As a noun, "occipital bone" means: The bone at the back of the skull in humans and various other animals.
What is the origin of the word "occipital bone"?
From Latin occiput; compare ob- (“towards, against”) and caput (“head”) See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “occipital bone”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is O-C-C-I-P-I-T-A-L- -B-O-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list