Pi or pie?
pi is a noun meaning “The sixteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets and the…”; pie is a noun meaning “A type of pastry that consists of an outer crust and a filling. (Savory pies…”. They sound the same (/paɪ/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) pie is about 1.9 times as common as pi.
What is the difference between pi and pie?
| pi | pie | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb, adjective | noun, verb, adjective |
| Meaning | The sixteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets and the seventeenth in Old Greek An irrational and transcendental constant representing the ratio of the circumference of a Euclidean circle to its diameter; approximately 3.14159265 Metal type that has been spilled, mixed together, or disordered | A type of pastry that consists of an outer crust and a filling. (Savory pies are more popular in the UK and sweet pies are more popular in the US, so "pie"… Any of various other, non-pastry dishes that maintain the general concept of a shell with a filling To hit in the face with a pie, either for comic effect or as a means of protest (see also pieing) |
| Example | In computing, pi characters may be entered with special key combinations | The family had steak and kidney pie for dinner and cherry pie for dessert |
| Forms | pis | pies |
| Pronunciation | /paɪ/ | /paɪ/ /pɑɪ/ /piː.aɪ.iː/ |
| In writing | 8.3 times per million words | 15 times per million words |
Sources: pi and pie in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of pi and pie
pi
- 1
The sixteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets and the seventeenth in Old Greek
- 2
Metal type that has been spilled, mixed together, or disordered
- 3
To spill or mix printing type
- 4
Not part of the usual font character set; especially, non-Roman type or symbols as opposed to standard alphanumeric Roman type
In computing, pi characters may be entered with special key combinations
- 5
pica (conventionally, 12 points = 1 pica, 6 picas = 1 inch)
- 6
Pious
- 7
Initialism of politically incorrect (see PC)
- 8
Initialism of processing instruction
pie
- 1
A type of pastry that consists of an outer crust and a filling. (Savory pies are more popular in the UK and sweet pies are more popular in the US, so "pie" without qualification has different…
The family had steak and kidney pie for dinner and cherry pie for dessert
- 2
To hit in the face with a pie, either for comic effect or as a means of protest (see also pieing)
I'd like to see someone pie the chairman of the board
- 3
A former low-denomination coin of northern India
- 4
Ellipsis of pie-dog (“an Indian breed, a stray dog in Indian contexts”)
- 5
A traditional Spanish unit of length, equivalent to about 27.9 cm
- 6
Alternative form of pi (“metal type that has been spilled, mixed together, or disordered”)
- 7
Alternative form of pi (“to spill or mix printing type”)
- 8
Initialism of Proto-Indo-European
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, pi or pie?
pi appears 8.3 times per million words; pie 15 times per million words.
pi 8.3 times per million wordspie 15 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search pi vs pie?
“pi vs pie” is searched about 320 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“pie vs pi”, “pi or pie”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.