paraplegia
"paraplegia" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“paraplegia” is uncommon English (frequency #85,625 among 46,516 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #85,625
- frequency rank, English
- 46,516
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A condition where the lower half of a patient's body is paralyzed and cannot move.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | paraplegia |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #85,625 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “paraplegia” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
paraplegia is uncommon English at frequency #85,625 among 46,516 “P” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A condition where the lower half of a patient's body is paralyzed and cannot move.".
Zero misspellings are on record for paraplegia in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From New Latin paraplegia, from Ancient Greek παραπληγίη (paraplēgíē), Ionic Greek for παραπληξία (paraplēxía, “paralysis on one side”), from παραπλήσσεσθαι (paraplḗssesthai, “to be stricken on one side”), active παραπλήσσειν (paraplḗssein, “to strike on on… The correct English form is paraplegia, spelled P-A-R-A-P-L-E-G-I-A.
Definition
- 1A condition where the lower half of a patient's body is paralyzed and cannot move.
Etymology
From New Latin paraplegia, from Ancient Greek παραπληγίη (paraplēgíē), Ionic Greek for παραπληξία (paraplēxía, “paralysis on one side”), from παραπλήσσεσθαι (paraplḗssesthai, “to be stricken on one side”), active παραπλήσσειν (paraplḗssein, “to strike on one side”), from παρά (pará, “beside”) + πλήσσειν (plḗssein, “to strike”).
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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Using “paraplegia”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-A-R-A-P-L-E-G-I-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.