selenium
/sɪˈliːni.əm/
"selenium" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“selenium” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #32,174. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #32,174
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
- 11
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A nonmetallic chemical element (symbol Se) with an atomic number of 34, used mainly in glassmaking and pigments and as a semiconductor.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | selenium |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /sɪˈliːni.əm/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #32,174 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “selenium” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 11 spelling variants around selenium (IPA /sɪˈliːni.əm/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #32,174 among 54,294 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for selenium, with forms such as "eslenium", "seelnium", and "seleinum". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French sélénium, the name coined by Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius in 1818 from Ancient Greek σελήνη (selḗnē, “moon”) in reference to original confusion with the similar element tellurium. The correct English form is selenium, spelled S-E-L-E-N-I-U-M.
Definition
- 1A nonmetallic chemical element (symbol Se) with an atomic number of 34, used mainly in glassmaking and pigments and as a semiconductor.
- 2A single atom of this element.
Etymology
From French sélénium, the name coined by Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius in 1818 from Ancient Greek σελήνη (selḗnē, “moon”) in reference to original confusion with the similar element tellurium.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- eslenium
- seelnium
- seleinum
- selenimu
- seleniumm
- selennium
- selenuim
- sellenium
- selneium
- sleenium
- sselenium
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of selenium - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “selenium”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-E-L-E-N-I-U-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /sɪˈliːni.əm/ (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.