phylogeny
/faɪˈlɒd͡ʒəni/
"phylogeny" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“phylogeny” is uncommon English (frequency #53,164 among 46,516 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #53,164
- frequency rank, English
- 46,516
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The evolutionary history of groups of organisms, such as species or clades.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | phylogeny |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /faɪˈlɒd͡ʒəni/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #53,164 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “phylogeny” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
phylogeny is uncommon English at frequency #53,164 among 46,516 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /faɪˈlɒd͡ʒəni/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for phylogeny, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from German Phylogenie, coined by Ernst Haeckel in 1866, a neologism created as if borrowed from a Classic Greek word φυλογένεια (phulogéneia), composed from Ancient Greek φῦλον (phûlon, “tribe, genus, species”) + Ancient Greek -γένεια (-géneia, “-… The correct English form is phylogeny, spelled P-H-Y-L-O-G-E-N-Y.
Definition
- 1The evolutionary history of groups of organisms, such as species or clades.
- 2A phylogenetic diagram.
- 3The historical development of a human social or racial group.
- 4The historical development of any thing, idea, etc.
Etymology
Borrowed from German Phylogenie, coined by Ernst Haeckel in 1866, a neologism created as if borrowed from a Classic Greek word φυλογένεια (phulogéneia), composed from Ancient Greek φῦλον (phûlon, “tribe, genus, species”) + Ancient Greek -γένεια (-géneia, “-geny (generation, production)”).
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
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Using “phylogeny”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-H-Y-L-O-G-E-N-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /faɪˈlɒd͡ʒəni/ (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
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.