rhizome
/ˈɹaɪzoʊm/
"rhizome" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“rhizome” is uncommon English (frequency #59,676 among 21,470 “R” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #59,676
- frequency rank, English
- 21,470
- “R” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A horizontal, underground stem of some plants that sends out roots and shoots (scions) from its nodes.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | rhizome |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɹaɪzoʊm/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #59,676 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “rhizome” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
rhizome is uncommon English at frequency #59,676 among 21,470 “R” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈɹaɪzoʊm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
rhizome doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Ancient Greek ῥίζωμα (rhízōma). As philosophical metaphor, used by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. The correct English form is rhizome, spelled R-H-I-Z-O-M-E.
Definition
- 1A horizontal, underground stem of some plants that sends out roots and shoots (scions) from its nodes.
- 2A so-called “image of thought” that apprehends multiplicities.
Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek ῥίζωμα (rhízōma). As philosophical metaphor, used by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.
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 “rhizome”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-H-I-Z-O-M-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɹaɪzoʊm/ (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.