Paleocene
/ˌpeɪ.liː.əʊˈsiːn/
"paleocene" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Paleocene” is uncommon English (frequency #77,989 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #77,989
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of or pertaining to the Paleocene epoch.
Corpus desk
Index EN-paleocene · Paleocene · English
Paleocene · rank #77,989 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #77,989
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH oxbow
Nearest frequency peer: oxbow (-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 “Paleocene”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- overstock
overstock
22,015 corpus weight
- oxbow
oxbow
22,013 corpus weight
- Paleocene
Paleocene
22,012 corpus weight
- palindrome
palindrome
22,011 corpus weight
- papillary
papillary
22,009 corpus weight
- paramagnetic
paramagnetic
22,007 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “Paleocene” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Paleocene |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˌpeɪ.liː.əʊˈsiːn/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #77,989 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “Paleocene” in English
Rare enough to double-check
Paleocene is uncommon English at frequency #77,989 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˌpeɪ.liː.əʊˈsiːn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Of or pertaining to the Paleocene epoch.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for Paleocene, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French Paléocène. Coined by French botanist Wilhelm Philippe Schimper in 1874. By surface analysis, paleo- + -cene. The correct English form is Paleocene, spelled P-A-L-E-O-C-E-N-E.
Definition
- 1Of or pertaining to the Paleocene epoch.
Etymology
From French Paléocène. Coined by French botanist Wilhelm Philippe Schimper in 1874. By surface analysis, paleo- + -cene.
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 "Paleocene", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).