virion
/ˈvaɪɹiɑn/
"virion" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“virion” is uncommon English (frequency #77,325 among 969 “V” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #77,325
- frequency rank, English
- 969
- “V” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A single individual particle of a virus (the viral equivalent of a cell).
Corpus desk
Index EN-virion · virion · English
virion · rank #77,325 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #77,325
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 969
- PHOTO-FINISH vetch
Nearest frequency peer: vetch (-3 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 “virion”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Vang
Vang
22,683 corpus weight
- velveteen
velveteen
22,682 corpus weight
- Verano
Verano
22,681 corpus weight
- verisimilit…
verisimilitude
22,680 corpus weight
- vetch
vetch
22,679 corpus weight
- virion
virion
22,676 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “virion” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | virion |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈvaɪɹiɑn/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #77,325 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “virion” in English
Rare enough to double-check
virion is uncommon English at frequency #77,325 among 969 “V” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈvaɪɹiɑn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A single individual particle of a virus (the viral equivalent of a cell).".
No misspelling variants are generated for virion in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French virion. By surface analysis, virus + -on. The correct English form is virion, spelled V-I-R-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1A single individual particle of a virus (the viral equivalent of a cell).
Etymology
From French virion. By surface analysis, virus + -on.
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 "virion", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).