phloem
/ˈfləʊ.əm/
"phloem" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“phloem” is an uncommon English word, ranked #83,620 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #83,620
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A vascular tissue in land plants primarily responsible for the distribution of sugars and nutrients manufactured in the shoot.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | phloem |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfləʊ.əm/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #83,620 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “phloem” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for phloem is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfləʊ.əm/. Corpus data places it at rank #83,620 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A vascular tissue in land plants primarily responsible for the distribution of sugars and nutrients manufactured in the shoot.".
phloem has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: First attested in 1872. From German Phloëm, coined by Swiss botanist Carl Nägeli in 1858 from Ancient Greek φλόος (phlóos, “husk, bark”) + a Greek-sounding ending -em (cf. System). The correct English form is phloem, spelled P-H-L-O-E-M.
Definition
- 1A vascular tissue in land plants primarily responsible for the distribution of sugars and nutrients manufactured in the shoot.
Etymology
First attested in 1872. From German Phloëm, coined by Swiss botanist Carl Nägeli in 1858 from Ancient Greek φλόος (phlóos, “husk, bark”) + a Greek-sounding ending -em (cf. System).
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 “phloem”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-H-L-O-E-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈfləʊ.əm/ (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.