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paddy

/ˈpædi/noun

paddy is spelled P-A-D-D-Y: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 4.2 times per million words in written English, the 12,578th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “paddy vs patty” about 260 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, paddy means “Rough or unhusked rice, either before it is milled or as a crop to be harvested” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of paddy is paddies.

How many letters and syllables are in paddy?

Letters5: P-A-D-D-Y
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing4.2 times per million words; the 12,578th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How common is paddy?

Paddy appears 4.2 times per million words in written English, the 12,578th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce paddy?

  • /ˈpædi/

Paddy has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-paddy.ogg, En-au-paddy.ogg, En-au-Paddy.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with paddy

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

paddy vs patty260 G

Also written: batty, padi.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of paddy

  • paddies plural
  • more paddy comparative
  • most paddy superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does paddy mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Rough or unhusked rice, either before it is milled or as a crop to be harvested.

  2. 2

    A paddy field, a rice paddy; an irrigated or flooded field where rice is grown.

  3. 3

    A fit of temper; a tantrum.

    throw a paddy etc.

  4. 4

    slangA white person.

  5. 5

    colloquialA labourer's assistant or workmate.

  6. 6

    A drill used in boring wells, with cutters that expand on pressure.

  7. 7

    A snowy sheathbill.

noun

as Paddy
  1. 1

    offensiveslangAn Irish person.

adjective

  1. 1

    obsoleteLow; mean; boorish; vagabond.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Paddy in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpaddy, riz paddy (rice unmilled), rizière (wet land where rice grows)
Spanisharroz con cáscara, arroz en cáscara (rice unmilled), arrozal (wet land where rice grows)
GermanReisfeld (wet land where rice grows)
Portuguesearrozal (wet land where rice grows)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does paddy come from?

Borrowed from Malay padi (“paddy plant”). Doublet of palay.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after paddy