Tellus
"tellus" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Tellus” is uncommon English (frequency #80,038 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #80,038
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The goddess of the Earth in Roman mythology.
Corpus desk
Index EN-tellus · Tellus · English
Tellus · rank #80,038 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #80,038
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH TDA
Nearest frequency peer: TDA (-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 “Tellus”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Tarragona
Tarragona
19,968 corpus weight
- Taubman
Taubman
19,967 corpus weight
- Taupo
Taupo
19,966 corpus weight
- TDA
TDA
19,964 corpus weight
- Tellus
Tellus
19,963 corpus weight
- thoughtless…
thoughtlessly
19,956 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “Tellus” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Tellus |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #80,038 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “Tellus” in English
Rare enough to double-check
Tellus is uncommon English at frequency #80,038 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for Tellus, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin tellus (“Earth, globe, world”), from Proto-Italic *telnos, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *telnos ~ *telnes-, from *telh₂- (“flat ground”), but reshaped after rūs. Otherwise, could derive from Etruscan 𐌕𐌖𐌋𐌀𐌓 (tular, “earth”). The correct English form is Tellus, spelled T-E-L-L-U-S.
Definition
- 1The goddess of the Earth in Roman mythology.
- 2The planet Earth.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how Tellus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Perhaps the Custome of the Beggars, throwing the remainder of drinke out of the Dish on the Ground, may be derived from an Ethnick sacrifice to Tellus.
Now they could see what the guide was telling them: that the pillars supporting the frontage were of red granite, mined in Sweden, flanked at either end by golden statues of Atlas and Tellus, bearing on their shoulders spheres depicting the heavens and the earth.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin tellus (“Earth, globe, world”), from Proto-Italic *telnos, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *telnos ~ *telnes-, from *telh₂- (“flat ground”), but reshaped after rūs. Otherwise, could derive from Etruscan 𐌕𐌖𐌋𐌀𐌓 (tular, “earth”).
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 "Tellus", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).