palfrey
/ˈpɔːl.fɹi/
"palfrey" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“palfrey” is uncommon English (frequency #75,265 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #75,265
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A small horse with a smooth, ambling gait, popular in the Middle Ages with nobles and women for riding (contrasted with a warhorse).
Corpus desk
Index EN-palfrey · palfrey · English
palfrey · rank #75,265 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #75,265
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH Pahlavi
Nearest frequency peer: Pahlavi (-2 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 “palfrey”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- overworld
overworld
24,741 corpus weight
- Paganini
Paganini
24,739 corpus weight
- Pahlavi
Pahlavi
24,738 corpus weight
- palfrey
palfrey
24,736 corpus weight
- pappa
pappa
24,732 corpus weight
- Paracelsus
Paracelsus
24,731 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “palfrey” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | palfrey |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɔːl.fɹi/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #75,265 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “palfrey” in English
Rare enough to double-check
palfrey is uncommon English at frequency #75,265 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈpɔːl.fɹi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A small horse with a smooth, ambling gait, popular in the Middle Ages with nobles and women for riding (contrasted with a warhorse).".
No generated misspelling entries exist for palfrey in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English palfrey, from Anglo-Norman palefrei (“steed”), from Old French palefroi, palefreid, from Late Latin paraverēdus (“post horse, spare horse”), from Ancient Greek παρά (pará) + Latin verēdus (“post horse”), from Gaulish *werēdos (“horse”) (… The correct English form is palfrey, spelled P-A-L-F-R-E-Y.
Definition
- 1A small horse with a smooth, ambling gait, popular in the Middle Ages with nobles and women for riding (contrasted with a warhorse).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how palfrey appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Five warriors seiz'd me yestermorn, / Me, even me, a maid forlorn: / They choked my cries with force and fright, / And tied me on a palfrey white. / The palfrey was as fleet as wind, / And they rode furiously behind.
The eye of father and sister alike forgot every other object while watching the evolutions of the young and graceful boy, who realised the descriptions of romance as, his golden curls dancing on the wind, his cheek flushed with exercise, and his large blue eyes dilated and flashing with triumph, he ruled the snow-white palfrey by a wave of the hand and an…
Etymology
From Middle English palfrey, from Anglo-Norman palefrei (“steed”), from Old French palefroi, palefreid, from Late Latin paraverēdus (“post horse, spare horse”), from Ancient Greek παρά (pará) + Latin verēdus (“post horse”), from Gaulish *werēdos (“horse”) (compare Welsh gorwydd (“horse”)), from Proto-Celtic *uɸoreidos (“horse”). Doublet of prad. Compare Dutch paard and German Pferd.
This word in other languages
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "palfrey", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).