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parish

par·ish/ˈpæɹɪʃ/noun, verb

parish is spelled P-A-R-I-S-H: 6 letters and 2 syllables (par·ish). It appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 5,957th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “parish vs perish” about 110 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, parish means “An administrative part of a diocese that has its own church” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of parish is parishes.

How many letters and syllables are in parish?

Letters6: P-A-R-I-S-H
Syllables2: par·ish
In writing13 times per million words; the 5,957th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How common is parish?

Parish appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 5,957th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce parish?

  • UK /ˈpæɹɪʃ/
  • US /ˈpæɹɪʃ/
  • /ˈpɛɹɪʃ/

Parish has 2 syllables, split par·ish in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-parish.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with parish

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

parish vs perish110 G

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of parish

  • parishes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • parishing participle, present
  • parished participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does parish mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    An administrative part of a diocese that has its own church.

    Near-synonym: vicarate

  2. 2

    The community attending that church; the members of the parish.

  3. 3

    USAn ecclesiastical society, usually not bounded by territorial limits, but composed of those persons who choose to unite under the charge of a particular priest, clergyman, or minister; also, loosely, the territory in which the members of a congregation live.

  4. 4

    A civil subdivision of a British county, often corresponding to an earlier ecclesiastical parish; a similar subdivision in Ireland.

  5. 5

    An administrative subdivision in the U.S. state of Louisiana that is equivalent to a county in other U.S. states.

verb

  1. 1

    To place (an area, or rarely a person) into one or more parishes.

    […] [m]akes possible, through the aid of the rural ministers, the development of the various phases of the District program, such as (a) Parishing of the District; (b) Interdenominational adjustment in the interest of rural religious advanc

  2. 2

    To visit residents of a parish.

  3. 3

    Pronunciation spelling of perish, representing Mary–marry–merry merger English.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate parish?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of parish: par.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Parish in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchparoisse (part of a diocese), commune (civil subdivision of a county)
GermanGemeinde, Pfarrei (part of a diocese), Gemeindemitglied (members of the parish)
Portugueseparóquia (part of a diocese), freguesia (civil subdivision of a county), paroquianos (members of the parish)
Spanishparroquia, congregación (part of a diocese), feligreses (members of the parish)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does parish come from?

From Middle English parisshe, from Old French paroisse (compare the obsolete variant paroch, from Anglo-Norman paroche, parosse), from Late Latin parochia, from Ancient Greek παροικία (paroikía, “a dwelling abroad”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after parish