ruthenium
/ɹuːˈθiːniəm/
"ruthenium" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ruthenium” is uncommon English (frequency #79,030 among 3,094 “R” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #79,030
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A metallic chemical element (symbol Ru) with an atomic number of 44.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ruthenium · ruthenium · English
ruthenium · rank #79,030 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #79,030
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH Sachiko
Nearest frequency peer: Sachiko (+3 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 “ruthenium”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Ruislip
Ruislip
20,975 corpus weight
- ruthenium
ruthenium
20,971 corpus weight
- Sachiko
Sachiko
20,968 corpus weight
- sallow
sallow
20,966 corpus weight
- Salvos
Salvos
20,965 corpus weight
- samiti
samiti
20,964 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “ruthenium” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ruthenium |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɹuːˈθiːniəm/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #79,030 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “ruthenium” in English
Rare enough to double-check
ruthenium is uncommon English at frequency #79,030 among 3,094 “R” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ɹuːˈθiːniəm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
ruthenium has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Ruthenia + -ium. Named by Baltic German scientist Karl Ernst Claus in 1844 in honour of Russia (using the Latin name Ruthenia). The correct English form is ruthenium, spelled R-U-T-H-E-N-I-U-M.
Definition
- 1A metallic chemical element (symbol Ru) with an atomic number of 44.
- 2An atom of this element.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ruthenium appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Their latest catalyst includes some ruthenium.
This reaction substitutes a ruthenium for an osmium.
Etymology
Ruthenia + -ium. Named by Baltic German scientist Karl Ernst Claus in 1844 in honour of Russia (using the Latin name Ruthenia).
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 "ruthenium", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).