thalassemia
"thalassemia" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“thalassemia” is uncommon English (frequency #72,825 among 27,828 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #72,825
- frequency rank, English
- 27,828
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of a group of inherited disorders in which the amount of hemoglobin in the blood is reduced.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | thalassemia |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #72,825 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “thalassemia” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
thalassemia is uncommon English at frequency #72,825 among 27,828 “T” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of a group of inherited disorders in which the amount of hemoglobin in the blood is reduced.".
thalassemia has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Ancient Greek θάλασσα (thálassa, “sea”) (see also thalass-) and -emia (“blood”) (from αἷμα (haîma)). The etymology is suggestive of the epidemiology of the disorder, which is more common in people of Mediterranean descent. First used in 1932. The correct English form is thalassemia, spelled T-H-A-L-A-S-S-E-M-I-A.
Definition
- 1Any of a group of inherited disorders in which the amount of hemoglobin in the blood is reduced.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek θάλασσα (thálassa, “sea”) (see also thalass-) and -emia (“blood”) (from αἷμα (haîma)). The etymology is suggestive of the epidemiology of the disorder, which is more common in people of Mediterranean descent. First used in 1932.
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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Using “thalassemia”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-H-A-L-A-S-S-E-M-I-A - 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.