parr
/pɑː(ɹ)/
"parr" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“parr” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #28,661) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #28,661
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
- 3
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Young salmon, at a stage between fry and smolt when they feed chiefly on invertebrates but cannot tolerate saltwater.
Corpus desk
Index EN-parr · parr · English
parr · rank #28,661 · 3 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #28,661
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-LOW 3 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH parma
Nearest frequency peer: parma (-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.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “parr”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- overtook
overtook
71,343 corpus weight
- overture
overture
71,342 corpus weight
- parma
parma
71,341 corpus weight
- parr
parr
71,340 corpus weight
- passively
passively
71,338 corpus weight
- Paulson
Paulson
71,337 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “parr” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
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 | parr |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɑː(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #28,661 |
| Misspellings tracked | 3 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “parr”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for parr is neighbouring look-alikes ("PR", "per", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /pɑː(ɹ)/. Frequency #28,661 among 4,417 “P” headwords. Gloss: "Young salmon, at a stage between fry and smolt when they feed chiefly on invertebrates but cannot tolerate saltwater.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 3 likely wrong-spelling variants for parr, with forms such as "aprr", "pparr", and "prar". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "PR", "per", "pay", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Compare Scottish Gaelic bradan (“salmon”). For the salmon life stage, the word originates from the Middle English parren (“to enclose”), referring to the spots running along the side of the fish, resembling the bars of a fence. The correct English form is parr, spelled P-A-R-R.
Definition
- 1Young salmon, at a stage between fry and smolt when they feed chiefly on invertebrates but cannot tolerate saltwater.
Etymology
Compare Scottish Gaelic bradan (“salmon”). For the salmon life stage, the word originates from the Middle English parren (“to enclose”), referring to the spots running along the side of the fish, resembling the bars of a fence.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- aprr
- pparr
- prar
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of parr - 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "parr", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).