supernatant

adj

"supernatant" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“supernatant” is uncommon English (frequency #81,878 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#81,878
frequency rank, English
54,294
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Lying or floating above a denser fluid, or above a solid sediment or precipitate (which has been separated by crystallisation, centrifugation etc.).

Key facts for supernatant
PropertyValue
Headwordsupernatant
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters11
Frequency rank#81,878
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “supernatant” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). supernatant lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

supernatant is uncommon English at frequency #81,878 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Lying or floating above a denser fluid, or above a solid sediment or precipitate (which has been separated by crystallisation, centrifugation etc.).".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for supernatant, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From super- + natant. The correct English form is supernatant, spelled S-U-P-E-R-N-A-T-A-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Lying or floating above a denser fluid, or above a solid sediment or precipitate (which has been separated by crystallisation, centrifugation etc.).

Etymology

From super- + natant.

Antonyms

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

How do you spell "supernatant"?
"supernatant" is spelled S-U-P-E-R-N-A-T-A-N-T.
What does "supernatant" mean?
As an adjective, "supernatant" means: Lying or floating above a denser fluid, or above a solid sediment or precipitate (which has been separated by crystallisation, centrifugation etc.).
What is the origin of the word "supernatant"?
From super- + natant. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “supernatant”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is S-U-P-E-R-N-A-T-A-N-T - 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list