xylophone

/ˈzaɪ.ləˌfəʊn/

//ˈzaɪ.ləˌfəʊn// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"xylophone" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“xylophone” is uncommon English (frequency #61,918 among 54 “X” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#61,918
frequency rank, English
54
“X” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any musical instrument (percussion idiophone) made of wooden slats graduated so as to make the sounds of the scale when struck with a small drumstick-like mallet; the standard Western concert xylop...

Corpus desk

Index EN-xylophone · xylophone · English

xylophone · rank #61,918 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #61,918
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 54
  • PHOTO-FINISH Yair

Nearest frequency peer: Yair (+2 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 “xylophone”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “xylophone” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for xylophone
PropertyValue
Headwordxylophone
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈzaɪ.ləˌfəʊn/
Letters9
Frequency rank#61,918
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “xylophone” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).xylophonefalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Rare peers in the same band: “Yair” (#61,920), “Wyden” (#61,915), “Yeshua” (#61,922). Among 54 “X” headwords, “xylophone” is #61,918. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

xylophone is uncommon English at frequency #61,918 among 54 “X” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈzaɪ.ləˌfəʊn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any musical instrument (percussion idiophone) made of wooden slats graduated so as to make the sounds of the scale when struck with a small drumstick-like mallet; the standard Western concert xylop...".

xylophone doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: From xylo- (“of wood”) + -phone (“sound”). The correct English form is xylophone, spelled X-Y-L-O-P-H-O-N-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Any musical instrument (percussion idiophone) made of wooden slats graduated so as to make the sounds of the scale when struck with a small drumstick-like mallet; the standard Western concert xylophone or one of its derivatives.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how xylophone appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. All I know how to play on my xylophone is "Mary Had a Little Lamb". Would you like to hear it?

Etymology

From xylo- (“of wood”) + -phone (“sound”).

This word in other languages

xilófono(Español)xylophone(Français)Xylophon(Deutsch)

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

How do you spell "xylophone"?
"xylophone" is spelled X-Y-L-O-P-H-O-N-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈzaɪ.ləˌfəʊn/.
What does "xylophone" mean?
As a noun, "xylophone" means: Any musical instrument (percussion idiophone) made of wooden slats graduated so as to make the sounds of the scale when struck with a small drumstick-like mallet; the standard Western concert xylop...
How do you pronounce "xylophone"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "xylophone" is /ˈzaɪ.ləˌfəʊn/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "xylophone"?
From xylo- (“of wood”) + -phone (“sound”). 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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "xylophone", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Wenatchee#61,908Weintraub#61,907Vientiane#61,899agonising#61,947

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list