prolactin
/pɹoʊˈlæktɪn/
"prolactin" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“prolactin” is uncommon English (frequency #61,728 among 46,516 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #61,728
- frequency rank, English
- 46,516
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A peptide gonadotrophic hormone secreted by the pituitary gland; it stimulates growth of the mammary glands and lactation in females.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | prolactin |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɹoʊˈlæktɪn/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #61,728 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “prolactin” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
prolactin is uncommon English at frequency #61,728 among 46,516 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /pɹoʊˈlæktɪn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A peptide gonadotrophic hormone secreted by the pituitary gland; it stimulates growth of the mammary glands and lactation in females.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for prolactin, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From pro- (from Ancient Greek πρό (pró, “before”)) + lact- (variation of lacto-, from Latin lac (“milk”)) + -in (modification of -ine). The correct English form is prolactin, spelled P-R-O-L-A-C-T-I-N.
Definition
- 1A peptide gonadotrophic hormone secreted by the pituitary gland; it stimulates growth of the mammary glands and lactation in females.
Etymology
From pro- (from Ancient Greek πρό (pró, “before”)) + lact- (variation of lacto-, from Latin lac (“milk”)) + -in (modification of -ine).
Synonyms
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “prolactin”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-R-O-L-A-C-T-I-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /pɹoʊˈlæktɪn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.