phlebotomy
/flɪˈbɒtəmi/
"phlebotomy" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“phlebotomy” is an uncommon English word, ranked #99,700 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #99,700
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The opening of a vein, either to withdraw blood or for letting blood; venesection.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | phlebotomy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /flɪˈbɒtəmi/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #99,700 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “phlebotomy” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for phlebotomy is 10 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /flɪˈbɒtəmi/. Corpus data places it at rank #99,700 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The opening of a vein, either to withdraw blood or for letting blood; venesection.".
phlebotomy has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old French flebothomie (French phlébotomie), from Late Latin phlebotomia, from Ancient Greek φλεβοτόμος (phlebotómos, “that opens a vein”), from φλέψ (phléps, “vein”). By surface analysis, phlebo- + -tomy. The correct English form is phlebotomy, spelled P-H-L-E-B-O-T-O-M-Y.
Definition
- 1The opening of a vein, either to withdraw blood or for letting blood; venesection.
Etymology
From Old French flebothomie (French phlébotomie), from Late Latin phlebotomia, from Ancient Greek φλεβοτόμος (phlebotómos, “that opens a vein”), from φλέψ (phléps, “vein”). By surface analysis, phlebo- + -tomy.
Synonyms
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 "phlebotomy"?
What does "phlebotomy" mean?
How do you pronounce "phlebotomy"?
What is the origin of the word "phlebotomy"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “phlebotomy”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-H-L-E-B-O-T-O-M-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /flɪˈbɒtəmi/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.