pruritus
/pɹuːˈɹaɪtəs/
"pruritus" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pruritus” is uncommon English (frequency #90,864 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #90,864
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Itching; especially, severe itching of undamaged skin; caused by allergy, infection, lymphoma, etc.
Corpus desk
Index EN-pruritus · pruritus · English
pruritus · rank #90,864 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #90,864
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH programmatica…
Nearest frequency peer: programmatically (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “pruritus”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Prewitt
Prewitt
9,141 corpus weight
- programmati…
programmatically
9,138 corpus weight
- pruritus
pruritus
9,137 corpus weight
- psychoanaly…
psychoanalytical
9,136 corpus weight
- Pulliam
Pulliam
9,134 corpus weight
- puter
puter
9,133 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “pruritus” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pruritus |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɹuːˈɹaɪtəs/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #90,864 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “pruritus” in English
Rare enough to double-check
pruritus is uncommon English at frequency #90,864 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /pɹuːˈɹaɪtəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Itching; especially, severe itching of undamaged skin; caused by allergy, infection, lymphoma, etc.".
No misspelling variants are generated for pruritus in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin prūrītus (“an itch, an itching”), from prūriō (“to itch”). The correct English form is pruritus, spelled P-R-U-R-I-T-U-S.
Definition
- 1Itching; especially, severe itching of undamaged skin; caused by allergy, infection, lymphoma, etc.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how pruritus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
2018, AbbVie, "FDA Grants AbbVie's Upadacitinib Breakthrough Therapy Designation for Atopic Dermatitis", Drug Discovery & Development Atopic dermatitis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease, is characterized by skin erosion, oozing and crusting, redness, intense itching (pruritus) and dry skin.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin prūrītus (“an itch, an itching”), from prūriō (“to itch”).
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
How do you spell "pruritus"?
What does "pruritus" mean?
How do you pronounce "pruritus"?
What is the origin of the word "pruritus"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "pruritus", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).