Skip to main content
PlainSpell

synonymous

/sɪˈnɑnɪməs/adjective

synonymous is spelled S-Y-N-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S. The wrong spelling people search most is synonomous: about 270 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Synonymous is an adjective meaning “Having a similar (sometimes identical) meaning. (See Usage notes below)”.

How many letters and syllables are in synonymous?

Letters10: S-Y-N-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S
Syllables4 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing3.2 times per million words; the 14,928th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, synonomous, about 270 Bing searches a month (all of them)

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell synonymous?

Synonymous is spelled S-Y-N-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for synonymous in either form.

synonymousthe right spelling1,810 searches a month
synonomouso in place of y270 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is synonymous?

Synonymous appears 3.2 times per million words in written English, the 14,928th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce synonymous?

  • UK /sɪˈnɒnɪməs/
  • US /sɪˈnɑnɪməs/

Synonymous has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-synonymous.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What does synonymous mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Having a similar (sometimes identical) meaning. (See Usage notes below)

  2. 2

    Of, or being a synonym.

  3. 3

    Such that both its forms yield the same sequenced protein.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Synonymous in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Germanbedeutungsgleich, gleichbedeutend, synonym, synonymisch (having an identical meaning), bedeutungsähnlich, sinnverwandt (having a similar meaning)
Portuguesesinónimo, sinônimo (having an identical meaning)
Spanishsinónimo (having an identical meaning)
Frenchsynonyme (genetics: with both forms yielding the same…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does synonymous come from?

From Medieval Latin synōnymus, from Ancient Greek συνώνυμος (sunṓnumos). By surface analysis, synonym + -ous.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after synonymous