party line

noun

"party-line" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“party line” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A single telephone line which is shared by two or more households. Formerly common from the inception of telephony (1880s) through the mid-twentieth century.

Key facts for party line
PropertyValue
Headwordparty line
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “party line” sits in English frequency

party line falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

party line is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

party line doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is party line, spelled P-A-R-T-Y- -L-I-N-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    A single telephone line which is shared by two or more households. Formerly common from the inception of telephony (1880s) through the mid-twentieth century.
  2. 2
    The official policy of a political party or other organization.

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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "party line"?
"party line" is spelled P-A-R-T-Y- -L-I-N-E.
What does "party line" mean?
As a noun, "party line" means: A single telephone line which is shared by two or more households. Formerly common from the inception of telephony (1880s) through the mid-twentieth century.
What language does "party line" come from?
"party line" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “party line”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is P-A-R-T-Y- -L-I-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list