parley
/ˈpɑː(ɹ)li/
"parley" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“parley” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #46,678 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #46,678
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A conference, especially one between enemies.
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 | parley |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɑː(ɹ)li/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #46,678 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “parley” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for parley is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpɑː(ɹ)li/. Corpus data places it at rank #46,678 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A conference, especially one between enemies.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for parley, with forms such as "aprley", "palrey", and "parely". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "prey", "party", "parry", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English parlai (“speech, parley”), from Old French parler (“to talk; to speak”), from Late Latin parabolō, from Latin parabola (“comparison”), from Ancient Greek παραβολή (parabolḗ), from παρά (pará, “beside”) with βολή (bolḗ, “throwing”). Doubl… The correct English form is parley, spelled P-A-R-L-E-Y.
Definition
- 1A conference, especially one between enemies.
Etymology
From Middle English parlai (“speech, parley”), from Old French parler (“to talk; to speak”), from Late Latin parabolō, from Latin parabola (“comparison”), from Ancient Greek παραβολή (parabolḗ), from παρά (pará, “beside”) with βολή (bolḗ, “throwing”). Doublet of palaver.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aprley,palrey,parely,parleyy,parlley,parlye,parrley,pparley,praley
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of parley - 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
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Using “parley”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-A-R-L-E-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpɑː(ɹ)li/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “prey” - see the side-by-side comparison. parley vs prey
- 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.