precocious
/pɹəˈkəʊʃəs/adjective
precocious is spelled P-R-E-C-O-C-I-O-U-S: 10 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,504th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, precocious means “Characterized by exceptionally early development or maturity” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in precocious?
| Letters | 10: P-R-E-C-O-C-I-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 34,504th 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 precocious?
Precocious appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,504th 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 precocious?
- /pɹəˈkəʊʃəs/
Precocious 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-precocious.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of precocious
- more precocious comparative
- most precocious superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does precocious mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Characterized by exceptionally early development or maturity.
The precocious plant was already blooming flowers by day 4.
- 2
Exhibiting advanced skills and aptitudes at an abnormally early age.
The precocious child began reading the newspaper at age four.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Precocious in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
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 precocious come from?
From Latin praecox (“premature, precocious, ripe before time, early ripe”), from praecoquō (“to ripen beforehand, ripen fully, also boil beforehand”), from prae (“before”) + coquō (“to cook, boil, ripen”). Doublet of apricot.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).