sumac
/ˈs(j)uːmæk/
"sumac" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sumac” is uncommon English (frequency #64,042 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #64,042
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of various shrubs or small trees of the genus Rhus and certain other genera in Anacardiaceae.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sumac |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈs(j)uːmæk/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #64,042 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sumac” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
sumac is uncommon English at frequency #64,042 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈs(j)uːmæk/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for sumac in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is derived from Middle English sumac, asimac, simak, sumak, symak (“portions of the shrub Rhus coriaria, chiefly used for medicinal purposes”), from Anglo-Norman sumak, symak, and Old French sumac, or directly from its etymon Medieval Latin sumach,… The correct English form is sumac, spelled S-U-M-A-C.
Definition
- 1Any of various shrubs or small trees of the genus Rhus and certain other genera in Anacardiaceae.
- 2Any of various shrubs or small trees of the genus Rhus and certain other genera in Anacardiaceae.
- 3Dried and chopped-up leaves and stems of a plant of the genus Rhus, particularly tanner's sumac (see sense 1), used for dyeing and tanning leather or for medicinal purposes.
- 4A sour spice popular in the Eastern Mediterranean, made from the berries of tanner's sumac.
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English sumac, asimac, simak, sumak, symak (“portions of the shrub Rhus coriaria, chiefly used for medicinal purposes”), from Anglo-Norman sumak, symak, and Old French sumac, or directly from its etymon Medieval Latin sumach, sumac, from Arabic سُمَّاق (summāq), from Classical Syriac ܣܘܡܩܐ (summāqā, “red; sumac”). The English word is cognate with Italian sommaco, sommacco, Occitan simac, Portuguese sumagre, Spanish zumaque. The verb is derived from the noun.
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.
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Using “sumac”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-U-M-A-C - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈs(j)uːmæk/ (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.