zoster
/ˈzɑstɚ/
"zoster" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“zoster” is uncommon English (frequency #71,246 among 265 “Z” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #71,246
- frequency rank, English
- 265
- “Z” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An ancient Greek waist-belt for men.
Corpus desk
Index EN-zoster · zoster · English
zoster · rank #71,246 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #71,246
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 265
- PHOTO-FINISH zipline
Nearest frequency peer: zipline (-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 “zoster”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- zapping
zapping
28,760 corpus weight
- Zhukov
Zhukov
28,758 corpus weight
- zipline
zipline
28,757 corpus weight
- zoster
zoster
28,755 corpus weight
- abaya
abaya
28,747 corpus weight
- Abney
Abney
28,746 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “zoster” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | zoster |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈzɑstɚ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #71,246 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “zoster” in English
Rare enough to double-check
zoster is uncommon English at frequency #71,246 among 265 “Z” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈzɑstɚ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for zoster, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin zōstēr, from Ancient Greek ζωστήρ (zōstḗr). The correct English form is zoster, spelled Z-O-S-T-E-R.
Definition
- 1An ancient Greek waist-belt for men.
- 2The disease called herpes zoster (from the typically beltlike pattern of its rash); shingles.
Etymology
From Latin zōstēr, from Ancient Greek ζωστήρ (zōstḗr).
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 "zoster", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).