opalescent
/oʊpəˈlɛsənt/
"opalescent" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“opalescent” is uncommon English (frequency #97,384 among 1,431 “O” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #97,384
- frequency rank, English
- 1,431
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Exhibiting a milky iridescence like that of an opal.
Corpus desk
Index EN-opalescent · opalescent · English
opalescent · rank #97,384 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #97,384
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,431
- PHOTO-FINISH Oriya
Nearest frequency peer: Oriya (+3 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 “opalescent”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Offaly
Offaly
2,622 corpus weight
- oficina
oficina
2,621 corpus weight
- opalescent
opalescent
2,617 corpus weight
- Oriya
Oriya
2,614 corpus weight
- Ormskirk
Ormskirk
2,613 corpus weight
- orthopedist
orthopedist
2,612 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “opalescent” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | opalescent |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /oʊpəˈlɛsənt/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #97,384 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “opalescent” in English
Rare enough to double-check
opalescent is uncommon English at frequency #97,384 among 1,431 “O” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /oʊpəˈlɛsənt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Exhibiting a milky iridescence like that of an opal.".
No misspelling variants are generated for opalescent in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From opal + -escent. First attested in 1813. The correct English form is opalescent, spelled O-P-A-L-E-S-C-E-N-T.
Definition
- 1Exhibiting a milky iridescence like that of an opal.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how opalescent appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Below me, through the opalescent surface, I saw the white ghost of the Cessna.
Etymology
From opal + -escent. First attested in 1813.
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 "opalescent", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).