silphium
noun
silphium is spelled S-I-L-P-H-I-U-M: 8 letters. It appears about once in every 48 million words in written English, the 214,628th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, silphium means “A plant, thought to be extinct, used in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome in cooking and as a contraceptive” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of silphium is silphiums or silphia.
How many letters and syllables are in silphium?
| Letters | 8: S-I-L-P-H-I-U-M |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 48 million words; the 214,628th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is silphium?
Silphium appears about once in every 48 million words in written English, the 214,628th 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).
Forms of silphium
- silphiums plural
- silphia plural
- silfium
- silphion
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does silphium mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A plant, thought to be extinct, used in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome in cooking and as a contraceptive.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does silphium come from?
From Latin silphium, from Ancient Greek σίλφιον (sílphion).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).