paparazzo
/ˌpæ.pəˈɹæ.tsəʊ/
"paparazzo" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“paparazzo” is uncommon English (frequency #83,598 among 46,516 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #83,598
- frequency rank, English
- 46,516
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A freelance photographer who sells photographs of celebrities to the media, especially one who pursues celebrities and attempts to obtain candid photographs.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | paparazzo |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌpæ.pəˈɹæ.tsəʊ/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #83,598 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “paparazzo” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
paparazzo is uncommon English at frequency #83,598 among 46,516 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌpæ.pəˈɹæ.tsəʊ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A freelance photographer who sells photographs of celebrities to the media, especially one who pursues celebrities and attempts to obtain candid photographs.".
paparazzo has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Italian paparazzo, from the name of Coriolano Paparazzo, a character in Federico Fellini's La dolce vita. The correct English form is paparazzo, spelled P-A-P-A-R-A-Z-Z-O.
Definition
- 1A freelance photographer who sells photographs of celebrities to the media, especially one who pursues celebrities and attempts to obtain candid photographs.
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian paparazzo, from the name of Coriolano Paparazzo, a character in Federico Fellini's La dolce vita.
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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Using “paparazzo”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-A-P-A-R-A-Z-Z-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌpæ.pəˈɹæ.tsəʊ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.