pyrolysis
/paɪˈɹɒlɪsɪs/
"pyrolysis" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pyrolysis” is uncommon English (frequency #65,428 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #65,428
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The decomposition of a material or compound due to heat, in the absence of oxygen or other reagents.
Corpus desk
Index EN-pyrolysis · pyrolysis · English
pyrolysis · rank #65,428 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #65,428
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH quackery
Nearest frequency peer: quackery (+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 “pyrolysis”
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 “pyrolysis” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pyrolysis |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /paɪˈɹɒlɪsɪs/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #65,428 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “pyrolysis” in English
Rare enough to double-check
pyrolysis is uncommon English at frequency #65,428 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /paɪˈɹɒlɪsɪs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The decomposition of a material or compound due to heat, in the absence of oxygen or other reagents.".
pyrolysis has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From pyro- + -lysis. The correct English form is pyrolysis, spelled P-Y-R-O-L-Y-S-I-S.
Definition
- 1The decomposition of a material or compound due to heat, in the absence of oxygen or other reagents.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how pyrolysis appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Techniques that have successfully identified ionic intermediates in solution have been applied to gas-phase pyrolyses.
Twenty years ago our real understanding of the mechanism of alkane pyrolyses was little better than rudimentary.
Etymology
From pyro- + -lysis.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "pyrolysis", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).