paraphyletic
adjective
paraphyletic is spelled P-A-R-A-P-H-Y-L-E-T-I-C: 12 letters. It appears about once in every 48 million words in written English, the 214,628th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, paraphyletic means “Of a defined group of taxa: not including all descendants of the most recent common ancestor of all members” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in paraphyletic?
| Letters | 12: P-A-R-A-P-H-Y-L-E-T-I-C |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 48 million words; the 214,628th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is paraphyletic?
Paraphyletic appears about once in every 48 million words in written English, the 214,628th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
What does paraphyletic mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Of a defined group of taxa: not including all descendants of the most recent common ancestor of all members.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Paraphyletic in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense Excluding some descendants of the most recent common ancestor:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | paraphylétique |
| German | paraphyletisch |
| Portuguese | parafilético |
| Spanish | parafilético |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does paraphyletic come from?
From para- (“near”) + Ancient Greek φῦλον (phûlon, “tribe, race”) + -etic.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).