Words · Rare

helot

/ˈhɛlət/ · 5 letters · 5 distinct letters

  1. noun

    (Middle Ages) a person who is bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord

Word history

From Latin Hīlōta, from Ancient Greek Εἵλωτες (Heílōtes), possibly from ἁλίσκομαι (halískomai, “to be captured, to be made prisoner”) or from Ἕλος (Hélos, “Elos”), a Laconian town.

From Wiktionary, under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0

Why this word counts

Where it comes from
Listed in the English Speller Database at size 50: the standard list most spell checkers use.
How common it is
Rarer than once in ten million words.
In the spelling bee
Bonus word It’s waiting for an editor’s review because it’s rare in everyday writing. Until then it scores as a bonus word.

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helot: definition, pronunciation and puzzle history · Nectary