pygmalion
/pɪɡˈmeɪliən/
"pygmalion" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pygmalion” is uncommon English (frequency #65,425 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #65,425
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - One who acts as the legendary Greek sculptor Pygmalion (who was granted the wish of having life given to a sculpture of his which he fell deeply in love with).
Corpus desk
Index EN-pygmalion · pygmalion · English
pygmalion · rank #65,425 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #65,425
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH pyjama
Nearest frequency peer: pyjama (+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 “pygmalion”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- pygmalion
pygmalion
34,576 corpus weight
- pyjama
pyjama
34,575 corpus weight
- pyrolysis
pyrolysis
34,573 corpus weight
- quackery
quackery
34,572 corpus weight
- quali
quali
34,571 corpus weight
- Quarles
Quarles
34,570 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “pygmalion” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pygmalion |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɪɡˈmeɪliən/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #65,425 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “pygmalion” in English
Rare enough to double-check
pygmalion is uncommon English at frequency #65,425 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /pɪɡˈmeɪliən/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "One who acts as the legendary Greek sculptor Pygmalion (who was granted the wish of having life given to a sculpture of his which he fell deeply in love with).".
No generated misspelling entries exist for pygmalion in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Pygmalion, from Ancient Greek Πυγμαλίων (Pugmalíōn), from Phoenician 𐤐𐤏𐤌𐤉𐤕𐤍 (pʿmytn /puġ‘mayaton/), from Phoenician 𐤐𐤌𐤉𐤉𐤕𐤍 (pmyytn /pumayyaton/, “Pumay has given”), from Phoenician 𐤐𐤌𐤉 (pmy, “Pumay”) + Phoenician 𐤉𐤕𐤍 (ytn /yaton… The correct English form is pygmalion, spelled P-Y-G-M-A-L-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1One who acts as the legendary Greek sculptor Pygmalion (who was granted the wish of having life given to a sculpture of his which he fell deeply in love with).
Etymology
From Pygmalion, from Ancient Greek Πυγμαλίων (Pugmalíōn), from Phoenician 𐤐𐤏𐤌𐤉𐤕𐤍 (pʿmytn /puġ‘mayaton/), from Phoenician 𐤐𐤌𐤉𐤉𐤕𐤍 (pmyytn /pumayyaton/, “Pumay has given”), from Phoenician 𐤐𐤌𐤉 (pmy, “Pumay”) + Phoenician 𐤉𐤕𐤍 (ytn /yaton/, “to give”).
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 "pygmalion"?
What does "pygmalion" mean?
How do you pronounce "pygmalion"?
What is the origin of the word "pygmalion"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "pygmalion", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).