olfaction
/oʊlˈfækʃən/
"olfaction" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“olfaction” is uncommon English (frequency #99,654 among 1,431 “O” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #99,654
- frequency rank, English
- 1,431
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The sense of smell; the detection of airborne molecules.
Corpus desk
Index EN-olfaction · olfaction · English
olfaction · rank #99,654 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #99,654
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,431
- PHOTO-FINISH odourless
Nearest frequency peer: odourless (-8 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 “olfaction”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- O'Riordan
O'Riordan
359 corpus weight
- odorous
odorous
356 corpus weight
- odourless
odourless
355 corpus weight
- olfaction
olfaction
347 corpus weight
- Oulton
Oulton
339 corpus weight
- ouzo
ouzo
336 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “olfaction” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | olfaction |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /oʊlˈfækʃən/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #99,654 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “olfaction” in English
Rare enough to double-check
olfaction is uncommon English at frequency #99,654 among 1,431 “O” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /oʊlˈfækʃən/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The sense of smell; the detection of airborne molecules.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for olfaction in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Middle French olfaction /olefaction, from Latin olfactus, perfect passive participle of olfaciō (“to smell (transitive)”) + -tion. The correct English form is olfaction, spelled O-L-F-A-C-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1The sense of smell; the detection of airborne molecules.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how olfaction appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
‘I think the single most extraordinary aspect of olfaction is that we all smell the world differently,’ Beauchamp told me.
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French olfaction /olefaction, from Latin olfactus, perfect passive participle of olfaciō (“to smell (transitive)”) + -tion.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "olfaction", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).