polymath
/ˈpɒlɪmæθ/
"polymath" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“polymath” is uncommon English (frequency #77,104 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #77,104
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A person with extraordinarily broad and comprehensive knowledge.
Corpus desk
Index EN-polymath · polymath · English
polymath · rank #77,104 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #77,104
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH pontifex
Nearest frequency peer: pontifex (+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 “polymath”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Poconos
Poconos
22,900 corpus weight
- polisher
polisher
22,899 corpus weight
- polymath
polymath
22,897 corpus weight
- pontifex
pontifex
22,896 corpus weight
- Porterfield
Porterfield
22,894 corpus weight
- poultice
poultice
22,893 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “polymath” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | polymath |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɒlɪmæθ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #77,104 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “polymath” in English
Rare enough to double-check
polymath is uncommon English at frequency #77,104 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈpɒlɪmæθ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A person with extraordinarily broad and comprehensive knowledge.".
polymath has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek πολυμαθής (polumathḗs, “having learnt much”), first attested in 1624. From πολύς (polús, “much”) (for more, see poly-) + μανθάνω (manthánō, “to learn”). Compare opsimath, philomath, polyhistor, polymathic, polymathist, a… The correct English form is polymath, spelled P-O-L-Y-M-A-T-H.
Definition
- 1A person with extraordinarily broad and comprehensive knowledge.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how polymath appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
To be thought and held Polumathes and Polihistors.
A bit of a polymath, he was crucial in the early development of the railways in this country.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek πολυμαθής (polumathḗs, “having learnt much”), first attested in 1624. From πολύς (polús, “much”) (for more, see poly-) + μανθάνω (manthánō, “to learn”). Compare opsimath, philomath, polyhistor, polymathic, polymathist, and polymathy.
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 "polymath", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).