psychedelic
/ˈsaɪ.kəˌdɛl.ɪk/adjective, noun
psychedelic is spelled P-S-Y-C-H-E-D-E-L-I-C. The wrong spelling people search most is psychadelic: about 190 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 14 of all searches for the word. Psychedelic is an adjective meaning “Of, containing, generating, or reminiscent of drug-induced altered awareness, distortions of perception…”.
How many letters and syllables are in psychedelic?
| Letters | 11: P-S-Y-C-H-E-D-E-L-I-C |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.2 times per million words; the 18,537th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, psychadelic, about 190 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell psychedelic?
Psychedelic is spelled P-S-Y-C-H-E-D-E-L-I-C. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 14 of the searches for psychedelic in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is psychedelic?
Psychedelic appears 2.2 times per million words in written English, the 18,537th 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 psychedelic?
- UK /ˈsaɪ.kəˌdɛl.ɪk/
- UK /ˈsaɪ.kɪˌdɛl.ɪk/
Psychedelic has 4 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: En-au-psychedelic.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of psychedelic
- more psychedelic comparative
- most psychedelic superlative
- psychedelics plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does psychedelic mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Of, containing, generating, or reminiscent of drug-induced altered awareness, distortions of perception, hallucinations, etc.
- 2
Of graphics, etc.: having abstract shapes, bright colours, etc., reminiscent of drug-induced distortions of perception or hallucinations.
- 3
Awesome, cool, groovy.
noun
- 1
Any psychoactive substance (such as LSD or psilocybin) which, when consumed, causes perceptual changes (sometimes erratic and uncontrollable), visual hallucination, and altered awareness of the body and mind.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate psychedelic?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of psychedelic: psych.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Psychedelic in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | psychédélique |
| German | psychedelisch, bewusstseinserweiternd , Psychedelikum |
| Portuguese | psicodélico |
| Spanish | psicodélico |
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 psychedelic come from?
From Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ, “mind, soul”) + δῆλος (dêlos, “manifest, visible”) + English -ic (prefix forming adjectives with the sense ‘of or pertaining to’), coined by the English psychiatrist Humphry Osmond (1917–2004) in a 1956 letter to Aldous Huxley.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).