stellate
/ˈstɛl.eɪt/
"stellate" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“stellate” is uncommon English (frequency #86,796 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #86,796
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Shaped like a star, having points, or rays radiating from a center.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | stellate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈstɛl.eɪt/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #86,796 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “stellate” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
stellate is uncommon English at frequency #86,796 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈstɛl.eɪt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Shaped like a star, having points, or rays radiating from a center.".
stellate doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin stēllātus (“starry”), from stēlla (“star”) + -ātus (“-ate”, adjectival suffix); equivalent to stell(a) + -ate (adjective-forming suffix). The correct English form is stellate, spelled S-T-E-L-L-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1Shaped like a star, having points, or rays radiating from a center.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin stēllātus (“starry”), from stēlla (“star”) + -ātus (“-ate”, adjectival suffix); equivalent to stell(a) + -ate (adjective-forming suffix).
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 “stellate”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-T-E-L-L-A-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈstɛl.eɪt/ (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.