spherical
/ˈsfɛɹɪkəl/adjective
spherical is spelled S-P-H-E-R-I-C-A-L: 9 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 2.5 times per million words in written English, the 17,342nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, spherical means “Shaped as a sphere; being a sphere” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in spherical?
| Letters | 9: S-P-H-E-R-I-C-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.5 times per million words; the 17,342nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is spherical?
Spherical appears 2.5 times per million words in written English, the 17,342nd 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).
How do you pronounce spherical?
- /ˈsfɛɹɪkəl/
- /ˈsfiːɹɪkəl/
Spherical has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vininn126-spherical.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of spherical
- more spherical comparative
- most spherical superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does spherical mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Shaped as a sphere; being a sphere.
- 2
Of, or pertaining to, spheres.
- 3
Of a coordinate system, specifying the location of a point in a plane by using a radius and two angles.
- 4
Of or relating to the heavenly orbs, or to the sphere or spheres in which, according to ancient astronomy and astrology, they were set.
- 5
Of a multivariate probability distribution, to have a covariance matrix equal to the identity matrix up to a multiplicative factor.
a spherical Gaussian distribution
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Spherical in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense shaped like a sphere:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does spherical come from?
English spheric [from Latin sphaericus, from Ancient Greek σφαιρικός (sphairikós)] + -al.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).