tantalum
/ˈtæntələm/
"tantalum" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tantalum” is uncommon English (frequency #56,480 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #56,480
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A chemical element (symbol Ta) with atomic number 73: a rare, hard, blue-gray, lustrous transition metal that is highly corrosion-resistant.
Corpus desk
Index EN-tantalum · tantalum · English
tantalum · rank #56,480 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #56,480
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH tannin
Nearest frequency peer: tannin (-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 “tantalum”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- synoptic
synoptic
43,524 corpus weight
- taha
taha
43,523 corpus weight
- tannin
tannin
43,522 corpus weight
- tantalum
tantalum
43,521 corpus weight
- Tati
Tati
43,520 corpus weight
- telethon
telethon
43,519 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “tantalum” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tantalum |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtæntələm/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #56,480 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “tantalum” in English
Rare enough to double-check
tantalum is uncommon English at frequency #56,480 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈtæntələm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A chemical element (symbol Ta) with atomic number 73: a rare, hard, blue-gray, lustrous transition metal that is highly corrosion-resistant.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for tantalum in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: A New Latin word derived by Swedish chemist Anders Gustaf Ekeberg in 1802, from Latin Tantalus, named after Tantalus, alluding to the element's incapacity to absorb acid. See -ium. The correct English form is tantalum, spelled T-A-N-T-A-L-U-M.
Definition
- 1A chemical element (symbol Ta) with atomic number 73: a rare, hard, blue-gray, lustrous transition metal that is highly corrosion-resistant.
Etymology
A New Latin word derived by Swedish chemist Anders Gustaf Ekeberg in 1802, from Latin Tantalus, named after Tantalus, alluding to the element's incapacity to absorb acid. See -ium.
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 "tantalum", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).