imprison
/ɪmˈpɹɪzən/
"imprison" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“imprison” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #34,122 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #34,122
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To put in or as if in prison; confine somebody against their will.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | imprison |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɪmˈpɹɪzən/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #34,122 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “imprison” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for imprison is 8 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɪmˈpɹɪzən/. Corpus data places it at rank #34,122 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To put in or as if in prison; confine somebody against their will.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for imprison, with forms such as "immprison", "impirson", and "impprison". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "imprisoned", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English imprisonen, emprisounen, emprisonen, from Old French emprisonner. Equivalent to im- + prison. The correct English form is imprison, spelled I-M-P-R-I-S-O-N.
Definition
- 1To put in or as if in prison; confine somebody against their will.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English imprisonen, emprisounen, emprisonen, from Old French emprisonner. Equivalent to im- + prison.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: immprison,impirson,impprison,impriosn,imprisno,imprisonn,imprisson,imprrison,imprsion,imrpison,ipmrison,miprison
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of imprison - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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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Using “imprison”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-M-P-R-I-S-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɪmˈpɹɪzən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “imprisoned” - see the side-by-side comparison. imprison vs imprisoned
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.