Selene
/sɪˈliːni/
"selene" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Selene” is uncommon English (frequency #52,622 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #52,622
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The goddess of the Moon.
Corpus desk
Index EN-selene · Selene · English
Selene · rank #52,622 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #52,622
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH senescence
Nearest frequency peer: senescence (+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 “Selene”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- scowl
scowl
47,383 corpus weight
- Seema
Seema
47,381 corpus weight
- Selene
Selene
47,379 corpus weight
- senescence
senescence
47,378 corpus weight
- separable
separable
47,377 corpus weight
- sheared
sheared
47,376 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “Selene” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Selene |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /sɪˈliːni/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #52,622 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “Selene” in English
Rare enough to double-check
Selene is uncommon English at frequency #52,622 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed /sɪˈliːni/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for Selene, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From the Ancient Greek Σελήνη (Selḗnē, proper noun), from σέλας (sélas, “light”). The correct English form is Selene, spelled S-E-L-E-N-E.
Definition
- 1The goddess of the Moon.
- 2A female given name from Ancient Greek.
- 3The Moon.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how Selene appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Balancing Arria is the union of Selene and Endymion. In the center of the main panel Selene descends from her chariot, whose horses are held by a nymph, to join Endymion, who lies to the right.
In the other, more famous story, the moon goddess Selene fell in love with him^([Endymion]) while he was asleep.
Etymology
From the Ancient Greek Σελήνη (Selḗnē, proper noun), from σέλας (sélas, “light”).
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 "Selene", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).