paramour
/ˈpæɹəmʊə/
"paramour" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“paramour” is uncommon English (frequency #62,396 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #62,396
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A person who is the object of one's love, especially in an affair or romance; a lover; also, a sexual partner.
Corpus desk
Index EN-paramour · paramour · English
paramour · rank #62,396 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #62,396
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH pangolin
Nearest frequency peer: pangolin (-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 “paramour”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- paedophilia
paedophilia
37,609 corpus weight
- painlessly
painlessly
37,608 corpus weight
- pangolin
pangolin
37,606 corpus weight
- paramour
paramour
37,605 corpus weight
- partiality
partiality
37,603 corpus weight
- patronised
patronised
37,601 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “paramour” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | paramour |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpæɹəmʊə/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #62,396 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “paramour” in English
Rare enough to double-check
paramour is uncommon English at frequency #62,396 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈpæɹəmʊə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for paramour in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: The adverb is derived from Middle English par amour, paramore, paramours (“with sexual desire or love, passionately; in a courteous or friendly manner”), from Anglo-Norman par amur (“in a friendly or willing manner”) and Old French par amur, par amour, para… The correct English form is paramour, spelled P-A-R-A-M-O-U-R.
Definition
- 1A person who is the object of one's love, especially in an affair or romance; a lover; also, a sexual partner.
- 2A person (especially someone who is not one's spouse) with whom one has an illicit or secret affair; also (Scotland, US, law), one with whom a married person has an adulterous affair.
- 3A woman who is the object of a knight's love, and who he fights for.
- 4God as the object of a person's devotion or love.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how paramour appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
No ſolace could her Paramour intreat / Her once to ſhovv, ne court, nor dalliaunce, / But vvith bent lovvring brovves, as ſhe vvould threat, / She ſcould, and frovvned vvith frovvard countenaunce, / Vnvvorthy of faire Ladies comely gouernaunce.
It vvas no ſeaſon then for her [Nature] / To vvanton vvith the Sun her luſty Paramour.
Etymology
The adverb is derived from Middle English par amour, paramore, paramours (“with sexual desire or love, passionately; in a courteous or friendly manner”), from Anglo-Norman par amur (“in a friendly or willing manner”) and Old French par amur, par amour, paramours (“by or through love”) (modern French par amour), from par (“by; through; etc.”) (from Latin per (“by means of, through”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to go through; etc.”)) + amor, amur (“love”, noun) (from Latin amōrem, the accusative singular of amor (“desire, lust; affection, love”), from amō (“to love”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃emh₃- (“to grasp, seize; to take hold; to touch; etc.”)) + -or (suffix forming abstract nouns)). The noun is from Middle English paramour, paramoure, paramur, peramour (“wife; concubine; mistress; husband; male lover; darling, sweetheart; romantic love; sexual passion; (Christianity) Jesus Christ; the Virgin Mary; divine or spiritual love”), from par amour, paramore (adverb) (see above), possibly from a misinterpretation of to love paramour(s) (“to love passionately”) to mean “to love a beloved person”. The verb is partly from both of the following: * From Middle English paramouren (“to love (someone)”), probably derived from the adverb (see above). The Middle English word is only attested in one (possibly 15th-century) source and does not appear to have been used again until the 17th century; compare William Shakespeare's use of out-paramour in King Lear (written c. 1603–1606): see the 1608 quotation. * Uses from the 17th century onwards are probably derived from the noun.
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.
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "paramour", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).