order of magnitude
"order-of-magnitude" is a 16-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“order of magnitude” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 18
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The class of scale or magnitude of any amount, where each class contains values of a fixed ratio (most often 10) to the class preceding it.
Corpus desk
Index EN-order-of-magnitude · order of magnitude · English
order of magnitude · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 18 letters
- VOW-7 7 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "O" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | order of magnitude |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 18 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “order of magnitude” in English
Rare enough to double-check
order of magnitude is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The class of scale or magnitude of any amount, where each class contains values of a fixed ratio (most often 10) to the class preceding it.".
No misspelling variants are generated for order of magnitude in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: 18th century, in the sense "magnitude (brightness class) of a star", informed by the Greek τῶν μεγάλων τάξις (tôn megálōn táxis) (Ptolemy). The correct English form is order of magnitude, spelled O-R-D-E-R- -O-F- -M-A-G-N-I-T-U-D-E.
Definition
- 1The class of scale or magnitude of any amount, where each class contains values of a fixed ratio (most often 10) to the class preceding it.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how order of magnitude appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
2011, Enrico Fermi, Wikisource (translator), Concerning a Contradiction between the Electrodynamic and Relativistic Theory of Electromagnetic Mass, 1922, Enrico Fermi, Über einen Widerspruch zwischen der elektrodynamischen und relativistischen Theorie der elektromagnetischen Masse, Physikalische Zeitschrift, v 23, pp 340-344, However, we notice that altho…
However, this pales to insignificance against the massive volume of spoken language, for with over 500 patrons, any given second of the lunch hour would result in a spoken word count in the thousands, and the whole lunch hour would see a word count orders of magnitude larger than 3000.
Etymology
18th century, in the sense "magnitude (brightness class) of a star", informed by the Greek τῶν μεγάλων τάξις (tôn megálōn táxis) (Ptolemy).
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.