umbilicus
/ʌmˈbɪl.ɪ.kəs/noun
umbilicus is spelled U-M-B-I-L-I-C-U-S: 9 letters and 4 syllables. It appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 68,248th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, umbilicus means “A navel” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of umbilicus is umbilici or umbilicuses.
How many letters and syllables are in umbilicus?
| Letters | 9: U-M-B-I-L-I-C-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 5 million words; the 68,248th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is umbilicus?
Umbilicus appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 68,248th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce umbilicus?
- UK /ʌmˈbɪl.ɪ.kəs/
- UK /ˌʌm.bɪˈlaɪ.kəs/
- US /ʌmˈbɪl.ɪ.kəs/
Umbilicus has 4 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-umbilicus.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of umbilicus
- umbilici plural
- umbilicuses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does umbilicus mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A navel.
- 2
proscribedA umbilical cord.
- 3
A hilum.
- 4
A depression or opening in the center of the base of many spiral shells.
- 5
Either of the two apertures in the calamus of a feather.
- 6
A tube connecting an astronaut or spacecraft to the mothership, through which supplies and samples can be transferred.
How about a 270 mile tether to an orbiting satellite? Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you? Frank! Prepare to receive the umbilicus!
- 7
obsoleteOne of the foci of an ellipse or other curve.
- 8
A point of a surface at which the curvatures of the normal sections are all equal to each other.
A sphere may be osculatory to the surface in every direction at an umbilicus.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate umbilicus?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of umbilicus: umbi.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does umbilicus come from?
Borrowed from Latin umbilīcus (“navel”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).