pastime
/ˈpæs.taɪm/
"pastime" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pastime” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #25,516 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #25,516
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Something which amuses, and serves to make time pass agreeably.
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 | pastime |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpæs.taɪm/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #25,516 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pastime” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for pastime is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpæs.taɪm/. Corpus data places it at rank #25,516 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Something which amuses, and serves to make time pass agreeably.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for pastime, with forms such as "apstime", "pasitme", and "passtime". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "pasture", "pasting", "playtime", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From earlier passtime, pass-time, from Middle English passe tyme, passetyme, calque of Middle French passetemps. The correct English form is pastime, spelled P-A-S-T-I-M-E.
Definition
- 1Something which amuses, and serves to make time pass agreeably.
Etymology
From earlier passtime, pass-time, from Middle English passe tyme, passetyme, calque of Middle French passetemps.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: apstime,pasitme,passtime,pastiem,pastimme,pastmie,pasttime,patsime,ppastime,psatime
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pastime - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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
How do you spell "pastime"?
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Using “pastime”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-A-S-T-I-M-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpæs.taɪm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “pasture” - see the side-by-side comparison. pastime vs pasture
- 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.