sebum
/ˈsibm̩/
"sebum" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sebum” is uncommon English (frequency #79,954 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #79,954
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A thick oily substance, secreted by the sebaceous glands of the skin, that consists of fat, keratin and cellular debris.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sebum · sebum · English
sebum · rank #79,954 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #79,954
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH seamed
Nearest frequency peer: seamed (-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 “sebum”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Scituate
Scituate
20,052 corpus weight
- seamed
seamed
20,048 corpus weight
- sebum
sebum
20,047 corpus weight
- seismologic…
seismological
20,045 corpus weight
- selectman
selectman
20,044 corpus weight
- sendoff
sendoff
20,043 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “sebum” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sebum |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsibm̩/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #79,954 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “sebum” in English
Rare enough to double-check
sebum is uncommon English at frequency #79,954 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈsibm̩/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A thick oily substance, secreted by the sebaceous glands of the skin, that consists of fat, keratin and cellular debris.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for sebum, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Latin sēbum (“tallow, grease; suet”). The correct English form is sebum, spelled S-E-B-U-M.
Definition
- 1A thick oily substance, secreted by the sebaceous glands of the skin, that consists of fat, keratin and cellular debris.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how sebum appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
‘I mean, it is not simply adolescent acne caused by the over-excretion of sebum.’
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin sēbum (“tallow, grease; suet”).
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 "sebum", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).