# pail

> English word · Noun · IPA /peɪl/ · frequency rank #37,615

## Definitions
1. A vessel of wood, tin, plastic, etc., usually cylindrical and having a handle -- used especially for carrying liquids, for example water or milk; a bucket (sometimes with a cover).
2. A closed (covered) cylindrical shipping container.

## Etymology
From Middle English payle (“bucket, pail, milking pail”), of an uncertain origin.
Likely from Old English pæġel (“wine vessel, container for liquids, pail; a liquid measure”), from Proto-West Germanic *pagil, from Proto-Indo-European *bak- (“peg, club”), equivalent to peg + -le. Compare West Frisian pegel (“liquid measure, fourth of a litre, half-pint”), German Pegel (“level of liquid, level”), Middle Dutch pegel (“half-pint”), Danish pægl (“half-pint”). Doublet of peil.
Alternatively from Old French paielle (“frying pan, warming pan; a liquid measure”), from Latin patella (“small pan, shallow dish, platter”), diminutive of patina (“broad shallow pan, stewpan”). Perhaps a conflation of both.

## Easily confused with
- **pi** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-pi)
- **PL** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-pl)
- **pay** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-pay)
- **Pan** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-pan)
- **pin** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-pin)
- **pit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-pit)
- **pat** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-pat)
- **pic** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-pic)
- **pie** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-pie)
- **par** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-par)
- **pig** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-pig)
- **PAL** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-pal)
- **ppl** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-ppl)
- **pam** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-pam)
- **pas** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-pas)
- **phi** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-phi)
- **paw** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-paw)
- **psi** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-psi)
- **pol** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-pol)
- **Pak** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pail-vs-pak)

## Common misspellings (4)
`apil`, `paill`, `pial`, `ppail`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/pail