sphagnum
/ˈsfæɡnəm/
"sphagnum" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sphagnum” is uncommon English (frequency #70,281 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #70,281
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of various widely distributed mosses, of genus Sphagnum, which slowly decompose to form peat.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sphagnum |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsfæɡnəm/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #70,281 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sphagnum” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
sphagnum is uncommon English at frequency #70,281 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈsfæɡnəm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of various widely distributed mosses, of genus Sphagnum, which slowly decompose to form peat.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for sphagnum, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from translingual Sphagnum, which is from Ancient Greek σφάγνος (sphágnos). The correct English form is sphagnum, spelled S-P-H-A-G-N-U-M.
Definition
- 1Any of various widely distributed mosses, of genus Sphagnum, which slowly decompose to form peat.
Etymology
Borrowed from translingual Sphagnum, which is from Ancient Greek σφάγνος (sphágnos).
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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Using “sphagnum”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-P-H-A-G-N-U-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈsfæɡnəm/ (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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.