posology
/pəʊˈsɒ.lə.d͡ʒi/
"posology" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“posology” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The study of the dosages of drugs, especially the determination of appropriate dosages.
Corpus desk
Index EN-posology · posology · English
posology · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | posology |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pəʊˈsɒ.lə.d͡ʒi/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “posology” in English
Rare enough to double-check
posology is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /pəʊˈsɒ.lə.d͡ʒi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for posology in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Ancient Greek πόσος (pósos, “how much?”) + -ology (suffix indicating a branch of learning). The correct English form is posology, spelled P-O-S-O-L-O-G-Y.
Definition
- 1The study of the dosages of drugs, especially the determination of appropriate dosages.
- 2In the works of English philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832): the study of quantity; mathematics.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how posology appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The difficulty here alluded to occurs in the doses of medicine exhibited by the ancient physicians. These have long been observed to be very large; and it was on remarking the impossibility, according to our ideas, of exhibiting them with safety to human life, or even of escaping destruction under their influence, that my observation was first drawn to th…
Dr. Wise […] mentions two systems of Hindu surgery and nine systems of medicine, three of materia medica, one of posology, one of pharmacy, and three of metallic preparations alone. From these one can gather the strength and dimensions of the scientific knowledge of ancient India regarding therapeutic agents of both organic and inorganic origin.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek πόσος (pósos, “how much?”) + -ology (suffix indicating a branch of learning).
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.