placenta
pla·cen·ta/pləˈsɛntə/noun
placenta is spelled P-L-A-C-E-N-T-A: 8 letters and 3 syllables (pla·cen·ta). It appears 1.2 times per million words in written English, the 25,751st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, placenta means “An organ in most mammals during gestation that supplies food and oxygen to the foetus and passes back waste. It is on the wall of the uterus and…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of placenta is placentae or placentas.
How many letters and syllables are in placenta?
| Letters | 8: P-L-A-C-E-N-T-A |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: pla·cen·ta |
| In writing | 1.2 times per million words; the 25,751st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is placenta?
Placenta appears 1.2 times per million words in written English, the 25,751st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce placenta?
- /pləˈsɛntə/
- [pʰl̥əˈsɛntʰə]
- /pləˈsɪntə/
Placenta has 3 syllables, split pla·cen·ta in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-placenta.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of placenta
- placentae plural
- placentas plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does placenta mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An organ in most mammals during gestation that supplies food and oxygen to the foetus and passes back waste. It is on the wall of the uterus and links to the foetus through the umbilical cord. It is expelled after birth.
- 2
In flowering plants, the part of the ovary where ovules develop; in non-flowering plants where the spores develop.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Placenta in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense anatomy: placenta:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | placenta |
| German | Plazenta, Mutterkuchen |
| Portuguese | placenta |
| Spanish | placenta |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does placenta come from?
Learned borrowing from New Latin placenta (literally “flat cake”), an ellipsis of phrases such as placenta uterī (literally “womb cake”) and placenta uterīna (literally “uterine cake”), because of the flat round shape of the afterbirth. Doublet of palacsinta and palatschinke.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).