sequela
se·que·la/sɪˈkwɛlə/noun
sequela is spelled S-E-Q-U-E-L-A, 3 syllables: se·que·la. The wrong spelling people search most is sequala: about 90 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 33 of all searches for the word. Sequela is a noun meaning “Chiefly in the plural: a condition or disease which follows chronologically after an earlier one, being…”. The plural of sequela is sequelae; Wiktionary also lists sequelæ (archaic).
How do you spell sequela?
Sequela is spelled S-E-Q-U-E-L-A. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 17 of the searches for sequela in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
What does sequela mean?
noun
- 1
Chiefly in the plural: a condition or disease which follows chronologically after an earlier one, being either partly or wholly caused by it, or made possible by it.
- 2
That which follows; a consequence, an effect.
- 3
rarePeople who adhere to the opinions or teachings of another; followers.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce sequela?
- UK /sɪˈkwiːlə/
- UK /-ˈkwɛ-/
- US /sɪˈkwɛlə/
Sequela has 3 syllables, split se·que·la in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-sequela.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Güiseppi669-sequelae.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of sequela
- sequelae plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is sequela?
Sequela appears about once in every 51 million words in written English, the 222,788th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Sequela in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense condition or disease which follows chronologically after an earlier one:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does sequela come from?
Learned borrowing from Latin sequēla (“aftermath, sequel; consequence, result”), from sequor (“to follow; to come or go after, pursue”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“to follow”)) + -ēla (suffix forming abstract nouns from verbs). Doublet of sequel. The plural form is a learned borrowing from Latin sequēlae.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).