Venus flytrap

noun

"venus-flytrap" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“Venus flytrap” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An insectivorous plant of the savannas of North and South Carolina, Dionaea muscipula; the leaves are hinged and bordered with stiff hairs, and close when an insect alights on them.

Corpus desk

Index EN-venus-flytrap · Venus flytrap · English

Venus flytrap · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "V" 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.

Key facts for Venus flytrap
PropertyValue
HeadwordVenus flytrap
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “Venus flytrap” in English

Venus flytrapranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Venus flytrap is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for Venus flytrap, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. 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: From Venus (after the resemblance of the leaves to a human vulva) + flytrap (after the insectivorous nature of the plant). The correct English form is Venus flytrap, spelled V-E-N-U-S- -F-L-Y-T-R-A-P.

Definition

  1. 1
    An insectivorous plant of the savannas of North and South Carolina, Dionaea muscipula; the leaves are hinged and bordered with stiff hairs, and close when an insect alights on them.
  2. 2
    A kind of barbed trap used in the Vietnam War.

Etymology

From Venus (after the resemblance of the leaves to a human vulva) + flytrap (after the insectivorous nature of the plant).

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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Venus flytrap"?
"Venus flytrap" is spelled V-E-N-U-S- -F-L-Y-T-R-A-P.
What does "Venus flytrap" mean?
As a noun, "Venus flytrap" means: An insectivorous plant of the savannas of North and South Carolina, Dionaea muscipula; the leaves are hinged and bordered with stiff hairs, and close when an insect alights on them.
What is the origin of the word "Venus flytrap"?
From Venus (after the resemblance of the leaves to a human vulva) + flytrap (after the insectivorous nature of the plant). 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list