Palestine
/ˈpæləˌstaɪn/
"palestine" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Palestine” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #7,259 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #7,259
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A country in Western Asia, in the Middle East; the State of Palestine; the homeland of the Palestinian people.
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 | Palestine |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈpæləˌstaɪn/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #7,259 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Palestine” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Palestine is 9 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpæləˌstaɪn/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,259 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 23 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for Palestine, with forms such as "aplestine", "paelstine", and "palesitne". 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, "palatine", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English Palestyne, from Old English Palestina, from Latin Palaestīna (“Roman province of Palestine”), from Ancient Greek Παλαιστίνη (Palaistínē, “Philistia and the surrounding region”), from Hebrew פְּלֶשֶׁת (p'léshet, “Philistia, land of the Ph… The correct English form is Palestine, spelled P-A-L-E-S-T-I-N-E.
Definition
- 1A country in Western Asia, in the Middle East; the State of Palestine; the homeland of the Palestinian people.
- 2A country in Western Asia, in the Middle East; the State of Palestine; the homeland of the Palestinian people.
- 3The region in Western Asia in the Middle East between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.
- 4A British colonial entity administering approximately the lands mentioned in definition 1.
- 5The British League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, of which this region was a part (the remainder being Transjordan, which covered approximately the lands of the modern Kingdom (originally Emirate) of Jordan).
- 6Any of four Ancient Roman and Byzantine provinces in the eastern Mediterranean: Syria Palaestina, Palaestina Prima, Palaestina Secunda and Palaestina Salutaris.
- 7The Biblical Land of Israel, roughly corresponding to the northern part of modern-day Israel proper, the West Bank, and northwest Jordan.
- 8Philistia, a region in the Levant inhabited by the ancient Philistines.
- 9A number of places in the United States:
- 10A number of places in the United States:
- 11A number of places in the United States:
- 12A number of places in the United States:
- 13A number of places in the United States:
- 14A number of places in the United States:
- 15A number of places in the United States:
- 16A number of places in the United States:
- 17A number of places in the United States:
- 18A number of places in the United States:
- 19A number of places in the United States:
- 20A number of places in the United States:
- 21A number of places in the United States:
- 22A community in the City of Kawartha Lakes, Ontario, Canada.
- 23A village in Over Wallop parish, Test Valley district, Hampshire, England (OS grid ref SU2640).
Etymology
From Middle English Palestyne, from Old English Palestina, from Latin Palaestīna (“Roman province of Palestine”), from Ancient Greek Παλαιστίνη (Palaistínē, “Philistia and the surrounding region”), from Hebrew פְּלֶשֶׁת (p'léshet, “Philistia, land of the Philistines”). The term P-l-s-t or P-r-s-t, found in five Ancient Egyptian inscriptions (beginning with one at Medinet Habu from circa 1170 BCE and ending with Padiiset's Statue inscription from circa 900-850 BCE) as the name of a people near Egypt, is traditionally taken to be cognate. Seven Assyrian inscriptions contain the word "Palas(h)tu" or "Pilistu", which is usually also taken to be cognate.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aplestine,paelstine,palesitne,palesstine,palestien,palestinne,palestnie,palesttine,paletsine,pallestine,palsetine,plaestine,ppalestine
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Palestine - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "Palestine"?
What does "Palestine" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "Palestine"?
How do you pronounce "Palestine"?
What is the origin of the word "Palestine"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “Palestine”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-A-L-E-S-T-I-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpæləˌstaɪn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “palatine” - see the side-by-side comparison. Palestine vs palatine
- 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.