porphyria
/pɔː(ɹ)ˈfɪɹɪə/
"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.
Long-tail ranks near “porphyria”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Polson
Polson
13,358 corpus weight
- polyclonal
polyclonal
13,357 corpus weight
- popolo
popolo
13,354 corpus weight
- porphyria
porphyria
13,353 corpus weight
- PRB
PRB
13,350 corpus weight
- preggo
preggo
13,349 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “porphyria” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | porphyria |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɔː(ɹ)ˈfɪɹɪə/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #86,648 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “porphyria” in English
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
- 1Any of several usually hereditary abnormalities of porphyrin metabolism characterized by excretion of excess porphyrins in the urine.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how porphyria appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
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.
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
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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).