specie
/ˈspiːʃi/
"specie" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“specie” is uncommon English (frequency #57,087 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #57,087
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Type or kind, in various uses of the phrase in specie.
Corpus desk
Index EN-specie · specie · English
specie · rank #57,087 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #57,087
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH Southall
Nearest frequency peer: Southall (-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 “specie”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- sodden
sodden
42,917 corpus weight
- soli
soli
42,916 corpus weight
- Southall
Southall
42,915 corpus weight
- specie
specie
42,914 corpus weight
- speechwriter
speechwriter
42,913 corpus weight
- spillage
spillage
42,912 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “specie” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | specie |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈspiːʃi/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #57,087 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “specie” in English
Rare enough to double-check
specie is uncommon English at frequency #57,087 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈspiːʃi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for specie in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Originally in the phrase in specie; from Latin speciē, ablative singular of species. Compare in kind. The correct English form is specie, spelled S-P-E-C-I-E.
Definition
- 1Type or kind, in various uses of the phrase in specie.
- 2Money in the form of coins made from precious metal that has an intrinsic value; coinage.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how specie appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I received one month's pay in specie while on the march to Virginia, in the year 1781, and except that, I never received any pay worth the name while I belonged to the army.
‘It was not money or specie he thought himself hunting!’
Etymology
Originally in the phrase in specie; from Latin speciē, ablative singular of species. Compare in kind.
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 "specie", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).