phylum
/ˈfaɪləm/
"phylum" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“phylum” is uncommon English (frequency #62,412 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #62,412
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A rank in the classification of organisms, below kingdom and above class; also called a divisio or a division, especially in describing plants; a taxon at that rank
Corpus desk
Index EN-phylum · phylum · English
phylum · rank #62,412 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #62,412
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH Phoebus
Nearest frequency peer: Phoebus (-1 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.
Long-tail ranks near “phylum”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Phoebus
Phoebus
37,590 corpus weight
- phylum
phylum
37,589 corpus weight
- pianoforte
pianoforte
37,588 corpus weight
- pincer
pincer
37,587 corpus weight
- planer
planer
37,586 corpus weight
- plaudits
plaudits
37,585 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “phylum” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | phylum |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfaɪləm/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #62,412 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “phylum” in English
Rare enough to double-check
phylum is uncommon English at frequency #62,412 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈfaɪləm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
phylum doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin phylum, from Ancient Greek φῦλον (phûlon, “tribe, race”). The correct English form is phylum, spelled P-H-Y-L-U-M.
Definition
- 1A rank in the classification of organisms, below kingdom and above class; also called a divisio or a division, especially in describing plants; a taxon at that rank
- 2A large division of possibly related languages, or a major language family which is not subordinate to another.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how phylum appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Mammals belong to the phylum Chordata.
While biologists are perpetually finding new species, they can almost always fit the organism into one of the existing taxonomic pigeonholes by which scientists classify life forms. The discovery of an organism so unusual that it needs its own phylum is an extremely rare event.
Etymology
From Latin phylum, from Ancient Greek φῦλον (phûlon, “tribe, race”).
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 "phylum", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).