pyrrhic
/ˈpɪ.ɹɪk/
"pyrrhic" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pyrrhic” is uncommon English (frequency #70,184 among 46,516 “P” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #70,184
- frequency rank, English
- 46,516
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of or characterized by pyrrhics (metrical feet with two short syllables).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pyrrhic |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈpɪ.ɹɪk/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #70,184 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pyrrhic” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
pyrrhic is uncommon English at frequency #70,184 among 46,516 “P” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈpɪ.ɹɪk/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for pyrrhic, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin pyrrhichius, from Ancient Greek πυρρίχιος (purrhíkhios), from πυρρίχη (purrhíkhē, “war dance”). The correct English form is pyrrhic, spelled P-Y-R-R-H-I-C.
Definition
- 1Of or characterized by pyrrhics (metrical feet with two short syllables).
- 2Relating to Pyrrhus, a Macedonian king, or some of his costly victories he had while fighting Rome.
- 3Alternative letter-case form of Pyrrhic (“achieved at too great a cost”).
Etymology
From Latin pyrrhichius, from Ancient Greek πυρρίχιος (purrhíkhios), from πυρρίχη (purrhíkhē, “war dance”).
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 “pyrrhic”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-Y-R-R-H-I-C - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpɪ.ɹɪk/ (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.