sarcophagus
/sɑːˈkɒfəɡəs/
"sarcophagus" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sarcophagus” has 17 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #37,667. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #37,667
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
- 17
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A stone coffin, often with its exterior inscribed, or decorated with sculpture.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sarcophagus |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /sɑːˈkɒfəɡəs/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #37,667 |
| Misspellings tracked | 17 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sarcophagus” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 17 spelling variants around sarcophagus (IPA /sɑːˈkɒfəɡəs/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #37,667 among 54,294 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 17 likely wrong-spelling variants for sarcophagus, with forms such as "asrcophagus", "sacrophagus", and "sarccophagus". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is borrowed from Latin sarcophagus (“grave; sarcophagus; flesh-eating, carnivorous”), from Ancient Greek σᾰρκοφᾰ́γος (sărkophắgos, “sarcophagus; flesh-eating, carnivorous”) (so named from λῐ́θος σᾰρκοφᾰ́γος (lĭ́thos sărkophắgos, literally “flesh-ea… The correct English form is sarcophagus, spelled S-A-R-C-O-P-H-A-G-U-S.
Definition
- 1A stone coffin, often with its exterior inscribed, or decorated with sculpture.
- 2The cement and steel structure that encases the destroyed nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine.
- 3A type of wine cooler (“a piece of equipment used to keep wine chilled”) shaped like a sarcophagus (sense 1).
- 4A kind of limestone used by the Ancient Greeks for coffins, so called because it was thought to consume the flesh of corpses.
Etymology
The noun is borrowed from Latin sarcophagus (“grave; sarcophagus; flesh-eating, carnivorous”), from Ancient Greek σᾰρκοφᾰ́γος (sărkophắgos, “sarcophagus; flesh-eating, carnivorous”) (so named from λῐ́θος σᾰρκοφᾰ́γος (lĭ́thos sărkophắgos, literally “flesh-eating stone”) a type of limestone found at Assos in Troas (now Behramkale, Turkey) thought to consume the flesh of corpses, and thus used to make coffins), from σαρκός (sarkós) (the genitive form of σάρξ (sárx, “flesh; body”), from Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ- (“to carve; to cut off, trim”)) + -φάγος (-phágos, suffix meaning ‘eater (of); eating’) (from ἔφαγον (éphagon, “to devour, eat”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂g- (“to allot, distribute; to divide”)). The plural form sarcophagi is borrowed from Latin sarcophagī. The verb is derived from the noun.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: asrcophagus,sacrophagus,sarccophagus,sarcohpagus,sarcopahgus,sarcophaggus,sarcophagsu,sarcophaguss,sarcophaugs,sarcophgaus,sarcophhagus,sarcopphagus,sarcpohagus,sarocphagus,sarrcophagus,sracophagus,ssarcophagus
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sarcophagus - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
How do you spell "sarcophagus"?
What does "sarcophagus" mean?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “sarcophagus”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-A-R-C-O-P-H-A-G-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /sɑːˈkɒfəɡəs/ (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
Same frequency band
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.