viscus
/ˈvɪskəs/noun
viscus is a noun meaning “One of the organs, as the brain, heart, or stomach, in the great cavities of the body of an animal; especially used in the plural, and applied to the…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled V-I-S-C-U-S, and it appears about once in every 46 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of viscus is viscera.
What does viscus mean?
noun
- 1
One of the organs, as the brain, heart, or stomach, in the great cavities of the body of an animal; especially used in the plural, and applied to the organs contained in the abdomen.
- 2
The intestines.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce viscus?
- /ˈvɪskəs/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-viscus.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of viscus
- viscera plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is viscus?
Viscus appears about once in every 46 million words in written English, the 209,386th 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).
Words people confuse with viscus
Sounds like: viscous (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Viscus in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense organ in the abdomen:
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 viscus come from?
From Latin vīscus (“any internal organ of the body”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).