passacaglia
/ˌpasəˈkɑːlɪ.ə/
"passacaglia" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“passacaglia” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A form of historical Spanish or Italian dance characterised by a serious nature, triple meter, and use of a ground bass.
Corpus desk
Index EN-passacaglia · passacaglia · English
passacaglia · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | passacaglia |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌpasəˈkɑːlɪ.ə/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “passacaglia” in English
Rare enough to double-check
passacaglia is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌpasəˈkɑːlɪ.ə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for passacaglia in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Italian passacaglia, from Spanish pasacalle, from pasar (“to pass”) + calle (“street”). The correct English form is passacaglia, spelled P-A-S-S-A-C-A-G-L-I-A.
Definition
- 1A form of historical Spanish or Italian dance characterised by a serious nature, triple meter, and use of a ground bass.
- 2Any piece of classical music with similar characteristics.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how passacaglia appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
In classical music there are, as the analytical programs tell us, first subjects and second subjects, free fantasias, recapitulations, and codas; there are fugues, with counter-subjects, strettos, and pedal points; there are passacaglias on ground basses, canons ad hypodiapente, and other ingenuities, which have, after all, stood or fallen by their pretti…
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian passacaglia, from Spanish pasacalle, from pasar (“to pass”) + calle (“street”).
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.