Thermopylae
/θɚˈmɑpɪli/
"thermopylae" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Thermopylae” is uncommon English (frequency #74,575 among 27,828 “T” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #74,575
- frequency rank, English
- 27,828
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A narrow pass on the east-central coast of Greece adjacent to the Maliakos Gulf, northwest of Athens. Its name is derived from its hot sulphur springs. It was the site of the Battle of Thermopylae,...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Thermopylae |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /θɚˈmɑpɪli/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #74,575 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Thermopylae” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Thermopylae is uncommon English at frequency #74,575 among 27,828 “T” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed /θɚˈmɑpɪli/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A narrow pass on the east-central coast of Greece adjacent to the Maliakos Gulf, northwest of Athens. Its name is derived from its hot sulphur springs. It was the site of the Battle of Thermopylae,...".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for Thermopylae, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin Thermopylae, from Ancient Greek Θερμοπύλαι (Thermopúlai). The correct English form is Thermopylae, spelled T-H-E-R-M-O-P-Y-L-A-E.
Definition
- 1A narrow pass on the east-central coast of Greece adjacent to the Maliakos Gulf, northwest of Athens. Its name is derived from its hot sulphur springs. It was the site of the Battle of Thermopylae, at which the Spartan King Leonidas stood off, for a time, the Persian armies of Xerxes.
Etymology
From Latin Thermopylae, from Ancient Greek Θερμοπύλαι (Thermopúlai).
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 “Thermopylae”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-H-E-R-M-O-P-Y-L-A-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /θɚˈmɑpɪli/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.