sphagnum
/ˈsfæɡnəm/
"sphagnum" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sphagnum” is uncommon English (frequency #70,281 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #70,281
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any of various widely distributed mosses, of genus Sphagnum, which slowly decompose to form peat.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sphagnum · sphagnum · English
sphagnum · rank #70,281 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #70,281
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH spink
Nearest frequency peer: spink (+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 “sphagnum”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- spammer
spammer
29,724 corpus weight
- spanky
spanky
29,723 corpus weight
- sphagnum
sphagnum
29,720 corpus weight
- spink
spink
29,719 corpus weight
- spinnaker
spinnaker
29,718 corpus weight
- Spivak
Spivak
29,717 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “sphagnum” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| 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) |
Long-tail rank of “sphagnum” in English
Rare enough to double-check
sphagnum is uncommon English at frequency #70,281 among 6,566 “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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how sphagnum appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
[T]he ground up here is waterlogged and riddled with potholes, holes beneath the spongy coral fern, hidden holes throughout the sphagnum.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sphagnum", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).