thymine
/ˈθaɪmɪn/
"thymine" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“thymine” is uncommon English (frequency #94,337 among 27,828 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #94,337
- frequency rank, English
- 27,828
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A heterocyclic base, 5-methylpyrimidine-2,4(1H,3H)-dione; it pairs with adenine in DNA.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | thymine |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈθaɪmɪn/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #94,337 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “thymine” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
thymine is uncommon English at frequency #94,337 among 27,828 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈθaɪmɪn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A heterocyclic base, 5-methylpyrimidine-2,4(1H,3H)-dione; it pairs with adenine in DNA.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for thymine, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. 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: From thymus + -ine. Thymine was first isolated in 1893 by Albrecht Kossel and Albert Neumann from calves' thymus glands, hence its name. The correct English form is thymine, spelled T-H-Y-M-I-N-E.
Definition
- 1A heterocyclic base, 5-methylpyrimidine-2,4(1H,3H)-dione; it pairs with adenine in DNA.
Etymology
From thymus + -ine. Thymine was first isolated in 1893 by Albrecht Kossel and Albert Neumann from calves' thymus glands, hence its name.
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 “thymine”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-H-Y-M-I-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈθaɪmɪn/ (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.