Sisyphus
/ˈsɪsɪfəs/
"sisyphus" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Sisyphus” is uncommon English (frequency #66,295 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #66,295
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Son of Aeolus and Enarete, and king of Ephyra, as tragic figure doomed eternally to roll a boulder up a hill in Tartarus, a part of Hades.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sisyphus · Sisyphus · English
Sisyphus · rank #66,295 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #66,295
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH Sirte
Nearest frequency peer: Sirte (-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 “Sisyphus”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Shoah
Shoah
33,711 corpus weight
- shuttling
shuttling
33,710 corpus weight
- Sirte
Sirte
33,707 corpus weight
- Sisyphus
Sisyphus
33,706 corpus weight
- Skegness
Skegness
33,703 corpus weight
- slava
slava
33,701 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “Sisyphus” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Sisyphus |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɪsɪfəs/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #66,295 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “Sisyphus” in English
Rare enough to double-check
Sisyphus is uncommon English at frequency #66,295 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed /ˈsɪsɪfəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Son of Aeolus and Enarete, and king of Ephyra, as tragic figure doomed eternally to roll a boulder up a hill in Tartarus, a part of Hades.".
Sisyphus has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Ancient Greek Σίσυφος (Sísuphos). The correct English form is Sisyphus, spelled S-I-S-Y-P-H-U-S.
Definition
- 1Son of Aeolus and Enarete, and king of Ephyra, as tragic figure doomed eternally to roll a boulder up a hill in Tartarus, a part of Hades.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how Sisyphus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Indeed, I have looked upon the fable of Sisyphus as an allegory, and that his wife was the stone which so perpetually rolled back upon his hands, effectually retarding his weary progress up-hill.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek Σίσυφος (Sísuphos).
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 "Sisyphus", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).