viscous
/ˈvɪs.kəs/adjective
viscous is spelled V-I-S-C-O-U-S. The wrong spelling people search most is viscuous: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 94 of all searches for the word. Viscous is an adjective meaning “Having a thick, sticky consistency between solid and liquid (that is, a high viscosity)”.
How many letters and syllables are in viscous?
| Letters | 7: V-I-S-C-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 31,168th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, viscuous, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell viscous?
Viscous is spelled V-I-S-C-O-U-S. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 94 of the searches for viscous in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is viscous?
Viscous appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 31,168th 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 viscous?
- /ˈvɪs.kəs/
Viscous has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-viscous.ogg, En-au-viscous.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with viscous
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: viscus (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of viscous
- more viscous comparative
- most viscous superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does viscous mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Having a thick, sticky consistency between solid and liquid (that is, a high viscosity).
- 2
Of or pertaining to viscosity.
viscous coefficient
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate viscous?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of viscous: visc..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Viscous in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense having a thick, sticky consistency:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | visqueux |
| German | zähflüssig, viskos, dickflüssig |
| Portuguese | viscoso |
| Spanish | viscoso, alastoso, alaste |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does viscous come from?
First attested in 1605. Borrowed from Middle French visqueux and Late Latin viscōsus, from Latin viscum (“birdlime”). Doublet of viscose.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).