phytophthora
"phytophthora" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“phytophthora” is uncommon English (frequency #79,854 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #79,854
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any of many parasitic pseudofungi, of the genus Phytophthora, that cause brown rot in plants.
Corpus desk
Index EN-phytophthora · phytophthora · English
phytophthora · rank #79,854 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #79,854
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH pili
Nearest frequency peer: pili (+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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “phytophthora”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Pewds
Pewds
20,150 corpus weight
- PFD
PFD
20,149 corpus weight
- phytophthora
phytophthora
20,147 corpus weight
- pili
pili
20,146 corpus weight
- Pilsen
Pilsen
20,145 corpus weight
- Pisgah
Pisgah
20,143 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “phytophthora” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | phytophthora |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #79,854 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “phytophthora” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
phytophthora is uncommon English at frequency #79,854 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of many parasitic pseudofungi, of the genus Phytophthora, that cause brown rot in plants.".
Zero misspellings are on record for phytophthora in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From the translingual Phytophthora (genus name), from Ancient Greek φῡτόν (phūtón, “plant”) + φθορᾱ́ (phthorā́, “destruction, ruin”). The correct English form is phytophthora, spelled P-H-Y-T-O-P-H-T-H-O-R-A.
Definition
- 1Any of many parasitic pseudofungi, of the genus Phytophthora, that cause brown rot in plants.
Etymology
From the translingual Phytophthora (genus name), from Ancient Greek φῡτόν (phūtón, “plant”) + φθορᾱ́ (phthorā́, “destruction, ruin”).
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.
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "phytophthora", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
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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.