psilocybin
/ˌsɪ.ləˈsaɪ.bɪn/
"psilocybin" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“psilocybin” is uncommon English (frequency #54,416 among 46,516 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,416
- frequency rank, English
- 46,516
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A hallucinogenic alkaloid, C₁₂H₁₅N₂O·H₂PO₃, present in several species of Central American mushroom and producing effects similar to LSD. The prodrug of psilocin.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | psilocybin |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌsɪ.ləˈsaɪ.bɪn/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #54,416 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “psilocybin” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
psilocybin is uncommon English at frequency #54,416 among 46,516 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌsɪ.ləˈsaɪ.bɪn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A hallucinogenic alkaloid, C₁₂H₁₅N₂O·H₂PO₃, present in several species of Central American mushroom and producing effects similar to LSD. The prodrug of psilocin.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for psilocybin, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from German Psilocybin (coined by Albert Hofmann), from translingual Psilocybe (“genus of mushroom”) + -in. The correct English form is psilocybin, spelled P-S-I-L-O-C-Y-B-I-N.
Definition
- 1A hallucinogenic alkaloid, C₁₂H₁₅N₂O·H₂PO₃, present in several species of Central American mushroom and producing effects similar to LSD. The prodrug of psilocin.
Etymology
Borrowed from German Psilocybin (coined by Albert Hofmann), from translingual Psilocybe (“genus of mushroom”) + -in.
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 “psilocybin”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-S-I-L-O-C-Y-B-I-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌsɪ.ləˈsaɪ.bɪn/ (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.