telephonic

adj

"telephonic" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“telephonic” is uncommon English (frequency #75,476 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#75,476
frequency rank, English
3,151
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of, pertaining to, or transmitted by telephony.

Corpus desk

Index EN-telephonic · telephonic · English

telephonic · rank #75,476 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #75,476
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,151
  • PHOTO-FINISH telecommuting

Nearest frequency peer: telecommuting (-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 “telephonic”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “telephonic” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for telephonic
PropertyValue
Headwordtelephonic
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters10
Frequency rank#75,476
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “telephonic” in English

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

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “telecommuting” (#75,475), “telephoning” (#75,477), “techy” (#75,474). Among 3,151 “T” headwords, “telephonic” is #75,476. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

telephonic is uncommon English at frequency #75,476 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Of, pertaining to, or transmitted by telephony.".

telephonic doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From telephone + -ic. The correct English form is telephonic, spelled T-E-L-E-P-H-O-N-I-C.

Definition

  1. 1
    Of, pertaining to, or transmitted by telephony.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how telephonic appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. There is two-way telephonic communication between kitchen, scullery, buffet and staff in the corridor between buffet and dining saloon.

Etymology

From telephone + -ic.

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 "telephonic"?
"telephonic" is spelled T-E-L-E-P-H-O-N-I-C.
What does "telephonic" mean?
As an adjective, "telephonic" means: Of, pertaining to, or transmitted by telephony.
What is the origin of the word "telephonic"?
From telephone + -ic. 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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "telephonic", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list