tumulus
/ˈtjuːmjələs/
"tumulus" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tumulus” is uncommon English (frequency #98,829 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #98,829
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A mound of earth, especially one placed over a prehistoric tomb; a barrow.
Corpus desk
Index EN-tumulus · tumulus · English
tumulus · rank #98,829 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #98,829
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH Turok
Nearest frequency peer: Turok (+1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “tumulus”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- troppo
troppo
1,178 corpus weight
- tumulus
tumulus
1,172 corpus weight
- Turok
Turok
1,171 corpus weight
- TVR
TVR
1,170 corpus weight
- tweedle
tweedle
1,169 corpus weight
- twitty
twitty
1,166 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “tumulus” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tumulus |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtjuːmjələs/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #98,829 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “tumulus” in English
Rare enough to double-check
tumulus is uncommon English at frequency #98,829 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈtjuːmjələs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A mound of earth, especially one placed over a prehistoric tomb; a barrow.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for tumulus in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin tumulus (“mound, hill”), from tumeō (“I swell”). Doublet of tombolo. The correct English form is tumulus, spelled T-U-M-U-L-U-S.
Definition
- 1A mound of earth, especially one placed over a prehistoric tomb; a barrow.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how tumulus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
They planted the cannon on the tumuli, sole elevations in this level country, and formed themselves into column and hollow square.
Near Smeinogorsk an octagonal tumulus has been found containing the corpse of a horse near a rectangular one with a human corpse, both within stone circles.
Etymology
From Latin tumulus (“mound, hill”), from tumeō (“I swell”). Doublet of tombolo.
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); 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tumulus", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).