porphyry
/ˈpɔɹ.fɪ.ɹi/
"porphyry" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“porphyry” is uncommon English (frequency #63,902 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #63,902
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A hard igneous rock consisting of large crystals in a fine-grained matrix.
Corpus desk
Index EN-porphyry · porphyry · English
porphyry · rank #63,902 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #63,902
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH posada
Nearest frequency peer: posada (+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 “porphyry”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- pollinator
pollinator
36,102 corpus weight
- polycrystal…
polycrystalline
36,101 corpus weight
- porphyry
porphyry
36,099 corpus weight
- posada
posada
36,098 corpus weight
- Prager
Prager
36,097 corpus weight
- prefab
prefab
36,096 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “porphyry” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | porphyry |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɔɹ.fɪ.ɹi/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #63,902 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “porphyry” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
porphyry is uncommon English at frequency #63,902 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈpɔɹ.fɪ.ɹi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for porphyry in our index, 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, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old French porfire, from Ancient Greek πορφυρίτης λίθος (porphurítēs líthos, “purple stone”), from πορφύρα (porphúra, “purple-fish, purple dye”). The correct English form is porphyry, spelled P-O-R-P-H-Y-R-Y.
Definition
- 1A hard igneous rock consisting of large crystals in a fine-grained matrix.
- 2A hard igneous rock consisting of large crystals in a fine-grained matrix.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how porphyry appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
A quartet of porphyry warriors, locked for all time in stern embrace outside St. Mark's Basilica, were probably carved in the Fourth Century. They are believed to represent the Roman Emperor Diocletian and the three men who held power with him.
Etymology
From Old French porfire, from Ancient Greek πορφυρίτης λίθος (porphurítēs líthos, “purple stone”), from πορφύρα (porphúra, “purple-fish, purple dye”).
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "porphyry", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
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- Usage frequency rank #63,902 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
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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.