photoreceptor
"photoreceptor" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“photoreceptor” is uncommon English (frequency #75,294 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #75,294
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A specialized neuron or other structure able to detect and react to light.
Corpus desk
Index EN-photoreceptor · photoreceptor · English
photoreceptor · rank #75,294 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #75,294
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH Phinney
Nearest frequency peer: Phinney (-2 rank slots)
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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “photoreceptor”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- phaeton
phaeton
24,712 corpus weight
- Phinney
Phinney
24,709 corpus weight
- photorecept…
photoreceptor
24,707 corpus weight
- pigeonhole
pigeonhole
24,704 corpus weight
- Pillay
Pillay
24,703 corpus weight
- pimento
pimento
24,702 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “photoreceptor” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | photoreceptor |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 13 |
| Frequency rank | #75,294 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “photoreceptor” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
photoreceptor is uncommon English at frequency #75,294 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A specialized neuron or other structure able to detect and react to light.".
photoreceptor doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From photo- + receptor. The correct English form is photoreceptor, spelled P-H-O-T-O-R-E-C-E-P-T-O-R.
Definition
- 1A specialized neuron or other structure able to detect and react to light.
Etymology
From photo- + receptor.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "photoreceptor", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 13 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
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- Usage frequency rank #75,294 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
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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.