porphyry
/ˈpɔɹ.fɪ.ɹi/noun
porphyry is spelled P-O-R-P-H-Y-R-Y: 8 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 63,645th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, porphyry means “A hard igneous rock consisting of large crystals in a fine-grained matrix” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of porphyry is porphyries.
How many letters and syllables are in porphyry?
| Letters | 8: P-O-R-P-H-Y-R-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 5 million words; the 63,645th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is porphyry?
Porphyry appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 63,645th 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 porphyry?
- /ˈpɔɹ.fɪ.ɹi/
- /ˈpɔɹ.fə.ɹi/
Porphyry has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-porphyry.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of porphyry
- porphyries plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does porphyry mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A hard igneous rock consisting of large crystals in a fine-grained matrix.
- 2
A purple-red rock of this kind.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Porphyry in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense crystal:
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 porphyry come from?
From Old French porfire, from Ancient Greek πορφυρίτης λίθος (porphurítēs líthos, “purple stone”), from πορφύρα (porphúra, “purple-fish, purple dye”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).