spica
"spica" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“spica” is uncommon English (frequency #65,527 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #65,527
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A spike (kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | spica |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #65,527 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “spica” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
spica is uncommon English at frequency #65,527 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
spica has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Latin spica. The correct English form is spica, spelled S-P-I-C-A.
Definition
- 1A spike (kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis).
- 2A spur.
- 3A kind of bandage passing, by successive turns and crosses, from an extremity to the trunk; a spiral bandage with reversed turns.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin spica.
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 “spica”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-P-I-C-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.