precancerous
/pɹiˈkænsəɹəs/
"precancerous" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“precancerous” is uncommon English (frequency #85,662 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #85,662
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of or pertaining to growth that is likely to develop into cancer.
Corpus desk
Index EN-precancerous · precancerous · English
precancerous · rank #85,662 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #85,662
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH presuppose
Nearest frequency peer: presuppose (+2 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 “precancerous”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Pomo
Pomo
14,344 corpus weight
- Ponton
Ponton
14,343 corpus weight
- precancerous
precancerous
14,339 corpus weight
- presuppose
presuppose
14,337 corpus weight
- Pripyat
Pripyat
14,336 corpus weight
- Promethean
Promethean
14,335 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “precancerous” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | precancerous |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /pɹiˈkænsəɹəs/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #85,662 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “precancerous” in English
Rare enough to double-check
precancerous is uncommon English at frequency #85,662 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /pɹiˈkænsəɹəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Of or pertaining to growth that is likely to develop into cancer.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for precancerous, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From pre- + cancerous. The correct English form is precancerous, spelled P-R-E-C-A-N-C-E-R-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Of or pertaining to growth that is likely to develop into cancer.
Etymology
From pre- + cancerous.
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 "precancerous", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).