porphyria

/pɔː(ɹ)ˈfɪɹɪə/

//pɔː(ɹ)ˈfɪɹɪə// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"porphyria" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“porphyria” is uncommon English (frequency #86,648 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#86,648
frequency rank, English
4,417
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any of several usually hereditary abnormalities of porphyrin metabolism characterized by excretion of excess porphyrins in the urine.

Corpus desk

Index EN-porphyria · porphyria · English

porphyria · rank #86,648 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #86,648
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,417
  • PHOTO-FINISH popolo

Nearest frequency peer: popolo (-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 “porphyria”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “porphyria” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for porphyria
PropertyValue
Headwordporphyria
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/pɔː(ɹ)ˈfɪɹɪə/
Letters9
Frequency rank#86,648
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “porphyria” sits in English frequency

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).porphyrialands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “popolo” (#86,647), “PRB” (#86,651), “polyclonal” (#86,644). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

porphyria is uncommon English at frequency #86,648 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /pɔː(ɹ)ˈfɪɹɪə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of several usually hereditary abnormalities of porphyrin metabolism characterized by excretion of excess porphyrins in the urine.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for porphyria, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From porphyrin, from German Porphyrin. The correct English form is porphyria, spelled P-O-R-P-H-Y-R-I-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Any of several usually hereditary abnormalities of porphyrin metabolism characterized by excretion of excess porphyrins in the urine.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how porphyria appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The term porphyria, derived from the Greek word porphyra, meaning purple, is apt because a hallmark of most of the porphyrias is the overexcretion of porphyrins in urine or feces.
  2. However, the appearance of homozygous forms without consanguinity and coincidence of two types of porphyria in the same patient, dual porphyrias, is possible.

Etymology

From porphyrin, from German Porphyrin.

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

How do you spell "porphyria"?
"porphyria" is spelled P-O-R-P-H-Y-R-I-A. The IPA pronunciation is /pɔː(ɹ)ˈfɪɹɪə/.
What does "porphyria" mean?
As a noun, "porphyria" means: Any of several usually hereditary abnormalities of porphyrin metabolism characterized by excretion of excess porphyrins in the urine.
How do you pronounce "porphyria"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "porphyria" is /pɔː(ɹ)ˈfɪɹɪə/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "porphyria"?
From porphyrin, from German Porphyrin. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "porphyria", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

presbyter#86,654playfield#86,638petulance#86,627Ramanujan#86,676

What to do next

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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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list