tumescence
/tjuːˈmɛsəns/
"tumescence" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tumescence” 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 September 3, 2026) - A swelling due to the presence of fluid.
Corpus desk
Index EN-tumescence · tumescence · English
tumescence · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "T" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tumescence |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /tjuːˈmɛsəns/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “tumescence” in English
Rare enough to double-check
tumescence is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /tjuːˈmɛsəns/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for tumescence, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: First attested 1725, from French tumescence, from Latin tumescēns (“swelling”), present participle of tumēscō (“I begin to swell”), from tumeō (“I swell”) + -ēscō (“I become”) (English -esce, in this form -escence), stem from Proto-Indo-European *tum-éh₁- (… The correct English form is tumescence, spelled T-U-M-E-S-C-E-N-C-E.
Definition
- 1A swelling due to the presence of fluid.
- 2A swollen bodily organ; used especially of erectile tissue.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how tumescence appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
It is still more remarkable that the reeves also, even in the presence of the males, will court each other and have intercourse. We may associate this with the high erotic development of birds, the difficulty with which tumescence seems to occur in them, and their long courtships.
Etymology
First attested 1725, from French tumescence, from Latin tumescēns (“swelling”), present participle of tumēscō (“I begin to swell”), from tumeō (“I swell”) + -ēscō (“I become”) (English -esce, in this form -escence), stem from Proto-Indo-European *tum-éh₁- (“to be swelling”), stative stem of *tum- (“to swell”).
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.