sputum
/ˈspjutəm/
"sputum" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sputum” is uncommon English (frequency #63,267 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #63,267
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Matter coughed up and expectorated from the mouth, composed of saliva and discharges from the respiratory passages such as mucus, phlegm or pus.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sputum · sputum · English
sputum · rank #63,267 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #63,267
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH spoilage
Nearest frequency peer: spoilage (-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 “sputum”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- spearing
spearing
36,737 corpus weight
- spiritus
spiritus
36,736 corpus weight
- spoilage
spoilage
36,735 corpus weight
- sputum
sputum
36,734 corpus weight
- squelch
squelch
36,733 corpus weight
- stacker
stacker
36,732 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “sputum” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sputum |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈspjutəm/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #63,267 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “sputum” in English
Rare enough to double-check
sputum is uncommon English at frequency #63,267 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈspjutəm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Matter coughed up and expectorated from the mouth, composed of saliva and discharges from the respiratory passages such as mucus, phlegm or pus.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for sputum, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From New Latin, from Latin sputum (“that which is spit out, spittle”), from spuere (“to spit”). The correct English form is sputum, spelled S-P-U-T-U-M.
Definition
- 1Matter coughed up and expectorated from the mouth, composed of saliva and discharges from the respiratory passages such as mucus, phlegm or pus.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sputum appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
In the early 1890s the work in the laboratory consisted of postmortems, urinalyses, and examination of sputums.
At the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, the boy’s sputum sat for a month, waiting for its turn in a slow process of antibody-matching analysis.
Etymology
From New Latin, from Latin sputum (“that which is spit out, spittle”), from spuere (“to spit”).
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 "sputum", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).