tragacanth
"tragacanth" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tragacanth” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A polysaccharide gum, extracted from several species of leguminous plants of the genus Astragalus, formerly used medicinally and now as a food additive. Also more fully gum tragacanth.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tragacanth |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tragacanth” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
tragacanth is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A polysaccharide gum, extracted from several species of leguminous plants of the genus Astragalus, formerly used medicinally and now as a food additive. Also more fully gum tragacanth.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for tragacanth, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin tragacantha, from Koine Greek τραγάκανθα (tragákantha, “tragacanth”), from Ancient Greek τράγος (trágos, “he-goat”) + ἄκανθα (ákantha, “thorn”). Doublet of adragant. The correct English form is tragacanth, spelled T-R-A-G-A-C-A-N-T-H.
Definition
- 1A polysaccharide gum, extracted from several species of leguminous plants of the genus Astragalus, formerly used medicinally and now as a food additive. Also more fully gum tragacanth.
Etymology
From Latin tragacantha, from Koine Greek τραγάκανθα (tragákantha, “tragacanth”), from Ancient Greek τράγος (trágos, “he-goat”) + ἄκανθα (ákantha, “thorn”). Doublet of adragant.
Synonyms
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “tragacanth”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-R-A-G-A-C-A-N-T-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.