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tungsten

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

8 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "tungsten", 8-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "tungsten" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "tungsten" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

tungsten is aEnglishnoun. It means: A rare metallic chemical element (symbol W, from Latin wolframium) with an atomic number of 74. Pronounced /ˈtʌŋstən/.

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Key facts for tungsten
PropertyValue
Headwordtungsten
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈtʌŋstən/
Letters8
Frequency rank#24,934
Misspellings tracked13
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of tungsten in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for tungsten is 8 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtʌŋstən/. Corpus data places it at rank #24,934 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for tungsten, with forms such as "tnugsten", "ttungsten", and "tugnsten". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Swedish tungsten (“scheelite”), from tung (“heavy”) + sten (“stone”). Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is tungsten, spelled T-U-N-G-S-T-E-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A rare metallic chemical element (symbol W, from Latin wolframium) with an atomic number of 74.
  2. 2
    A light bulb containing tungsten.
  3. 3
    scheelite, calcium tungstate

Etymology

Borrowed from Swedish tungsten (“scheelite”), from tung (“heavy”) + sten (“stone”).

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: tnugsten,ttungsten,tugnsten,tunggsten,tungsetn,tungssten,tungstenn,tungstne,tungstten,tungtsen,tunngsten,tunsgten,utngsten

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for tungsten

Misspelling Variants of "tungsten"

tnugsten8ttungsten9tugnsten8tunggsten9tungsetn8tungssten9tungstenn9tungstne8
Misspelling Variants of "tungsten"

Frequency rank: #24,934 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "tungsten"?
"tungsten" is spelled T-U-N-G-S-T-E-N. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈtʌŋstən/.
What does "tungsten" mean?
As a noun, "tungsten" means: A rare metallic chemical element (symbol W, from Latin wolframium) with an atomic number of 74.
What are common misspellings of "tungsten"?
Common misspellings include "tnugsten", "ttungsten", "tugnsten", "tunggsten", "tungsetn". The correct spelling is "tungsten".
How do you pronounce "tungsten"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tungsten" is /ˈtʌŋstən/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "tungsten"?
Borrowed from Swedish tungsten (“scheelite”), from tung (“heavy”) + sten (“stone”). See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter T in our English index:

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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.