pygmalion
/pɪɡˈmeɪliən/
"pygmalion" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pygmalion” is uncommon English (frequency #65,425 among 46,516 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #65,425
- frequency rank, English
- 46,516
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 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).
| 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) |
Where “pygmalion” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
pygmalion is uncommon English at frequency #65,425 among 46,516 “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
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Using “pygmalion”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-Y-G-M-A-L-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /pɪɡˈmeɪliən/ (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.