osmium
/ˈɒz.mi.əm/
"osmium" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“osmium” is uncommon English (frequency #89,714 among 1,431 “O” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #89,714
- frequency rank, English
- 1,431
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A chemical element (symbol Os) with atomic number 76: a hard, brittle, heavy, bluish-white transition metal found as a trace element in alloys, mostly in platinum ores.
Corpus desk
Index EN-osmium · osmium · English
osmium · rank #89,714 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #89,714
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,431
- PHOTO-FINISH Ouray
Nearest frequency peer: Ouray (+1 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 “osmium”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Orne
Orne
10,290 corpus weight
- oropharynge…
oropharyngeal
10,289 corpus weight
- osmium
osmium
10,287 corpus weight
- Ouray
Ouray
10,286 corpus weight
- outfall
outfall
10,285 corpus weight
- outsize
outsize
10,284 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “osmium” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | osmium |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɒz.mi.əm/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #89,714 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “osmium” in English
Rare enough to double-check
osmium is uncommon English at frequency #89,714 among 1,431 “O” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈɒz.mi.əm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
osmium has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Ancient Greek ὀσμή (osmḗ, “smell”) (because of the strong smell of its oxide) + -ium. The correct English form is osmium, spelled O-S-M-I-U-M.
Definition
- 1A chemical element (symbol Os) with atomic number 76: a hard, brittle, heavy, bluish-white transition metal found as a trace element in alloys, mostly in platinum ores.
- 2A single atom of this element.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how osmium appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Their latest catalyst includes some osmium.
This reaction substitutes a ruthenium for an osmium.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek ὀσμή (osmḗ, “smell”) (because of the strong smell of its oxide) + -ium.
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 "osmium", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).