palenque

noun

"palenque" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“palenque” is uncommon English (frequency #92,972 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#92,972
frequency rank, English
4,417
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A community of runaway slaves.

Corpus desk

Index EN-palenque · palenque · English

palenque · rank #92,972 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #92,972
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,417
  • PHOTO-FINISH Palestrina

Nearest frequency peer: Palestrina (+1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Long-tail ranks near “palenque”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “palenque” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for palenque
PropertyValue
Headwordpalenque
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters8
Frequency rank#92,972
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “palenque” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).palenquefalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Rare peers in the same band: “Palestrina” (#92,973), “paan” (#92,970), “Pande” (#92,975). Among 4,417 “P” headwords, “palenque” is #92,972. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

palenque is uncommon English at frequency #92,972 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A community of runaway slaves.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for palenque, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Spanish Palenque, the name of a maroon settlement in Colombia, from palenque (“palisade”). The correct English form is palenque, spelled P-A-L-E-N-Q-U-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    A community of runaway slaves.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how palenque appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Different from dozens of other palenques that were vanquished, this community has successfully fended off threats to its existence to this day.

Etymology

From Spanish Palenque, the name of a maroon settlement in Colombia, from palenque (“palisade”).

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

How do you spell "palenque"?
"palenque" is spelled P-A-L-E-N-Q-U-E.
What does "palenque" mean?
As a noun, "palenque" means: A community of runaway slaves.
What is the origin of the word "palenque"?
From Spanish Palenque, the name of a maroon settlement in Colombia, from palenque (“palisade”). See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "palenque", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list