tuberculosis
/tʃuːˌbɜː(ɹ)kjʊˈləʊsɪs/
"tuberculosis" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tuberculosis” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #13,443 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #13,443
- frequency rank, English
- 12
- letters
- 18
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An infectious disease of humans and animals caused by a species of mycobacterium, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis, mainly infecting the lungs where it causes tubercles characterized by the expec...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tuberculosis |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /tʃuːˌbɜː(ɹ)kjʊˈləʊsɪs/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #13,443 |
| Misspellings tracked | 18 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tuberculosis” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for tuberculosis is 12 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /tʃuːˌbɜː(ɹ)kjʊˈləʊsɪs/. Corpus data places it at rank #13,443 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "An infectious disease of humans and animals caused by a species of mycobacterium, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis, mainly infecting the lungs where it causes tubercles characterized by the expec...".
Our generated misspelling index lists 18 likely wrong-spelling variants for tuberculosis, with forms such as "tbuerculosis", "ttuberculosis", and "tubberculosis". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: To international scientific vocabulary from New Latin tūberculōsis, from Latin tūberculum (diminutive of tūber (“lump”)) + Latin -ōsis (“diseased condition”); by surface analysis, tubercul(um) + -osis; named for the encapsulated colonies of Mycobacterium tu… The correct English form is tuberculosis, spelled T-U-B-E-R-C-U-L-O-S-I-S.
Definition
- 1An infectious disease of humans and animals caused by a species of mycobacterium, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis, mainly infecting the lungs where it causes tubercles characterized by the expectoration of mucus and sputum, fever, weight loss, and chest pain, and transmitted through inhalation or ingestion of bacteria.
Etymology
To international scientific vocabulary from New Latin tūberculōsis, from Latin tūberculum (diminutive of tūber (“lump”)) + Latin -ōsis (“diseased condition”); by surface analysis, tubercul(um) + -osis; named for the encapsulated colonies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis within the lungs in pulmonary tuberculosis, which can look like small tubers (tubercles) on gross pathology. The disease has existed throughout human experience and had other names for millennia before scientific medicine renamed it with a New Latin term in the mid-19th century (1840s); in English it was called consumption because of the wasting away that consumed health and seemed even to consume flesh in some cases (for example, causing fistulas and tissue breakdown).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: tbuerculosis,ttuberculosis,tubberculosis,tubecrulosis,tubercculosis,tubercluosis,tubercullosis,tuberculoiss,tuberculosiss,tuberculossi,tuberculossis,tuberculsois,tubercuolsis,tuberrculosis,tuberuclosis,tubreculosis,tuebrculosis,utberculosis
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tuberculosis - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “tuberculosis”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-U-B-E-R-C-U-L-O-S-I-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /tʃuːˌbɜː(ɹ)kjʊˈləʊsɪs/ (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
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.