palpation

noun

"palpation" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“palpation” is uncommon English (frequency #89,727 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#89,727
frequency rank, English
4,417
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The act of feeling or pushing on various parts of a patient’s body to determine medical condition such as the normality of organs or the presence or absence of tumors, swelling, muscle tension, etc.

Corpus desk

Index EN-palpation · palpation · English

palpation · rank #89,727 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #89,727
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,417
  • PHOTO-FINISH palimpsest

Nearest frequency peer: palimpsest (-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 “palpation”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “palpation” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for palpation
PropertyValue
Headwordpalpation
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Frequency rank#89,727
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “palpation” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).palpationfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “palimpsest” (#89,726), “Panjab” (#89,729), “Paik” (#89,723). Among 4,417 “P” headwords, “palpation” is #89,727. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

palpation is uncommon English at frequency #89,727 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The act of feeling or pushing on various parts of a patient’s body to determine medical condition such as the normality of organs or the presence or absence of tumors, swelling, muscle tension, etc.".

palpation has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Etymologically, the entry records: From palpate + -ion. The correct English form is palpation, spelled P-A-L-P-A-T-I-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    The act of feeling or pushing on various parts of a patient’s body to determine medical condition such as the normality of organs or the presence or absence of tumors, swelling, muscle tension, etc.

Etymology

From palpate + -ion.

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

How do you spell "palpation"?
"palpation" is spelled P-A-L-P-A-T-I-O-N.
What does "palpation" mean?
As a noun, "palpation" means: The act of feeling or pushing on various parts of a patient’s body to determine medical condition such as the normality of organs or the presence or absence of tumors, swelling, muscle tension, etc.
What is the origin of the word "palpation"?
From palpate + -ion. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "palpation", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list