pastry
/ˈpeɪstɹi/
"pastry" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pastry” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #14,378 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #14,378
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 17
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A baked food item made from flour and fat pastes such as pie crust; also tarts, bear claws, napoleons, puff pastries, etc.
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 | pastry |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpeɪstɹi/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #14,378 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 17 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pastry” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for pastry is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpeɪstɹi/. Corpus data places it at rank #14,378 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for pastry, with forms such as "apstry", "pasrty", and "passtry". 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 17 confusable-pair relationships, "Patty", "Patsy", "pasty", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English pastre, pastri, from pastree (variant of pasterie, from Old French pastaierie and Medieval Latin pasteria, from Late Latin pasta, from Ancient Greek παστά (pastá)) or paste + -ri (modern paste + -ry). The correct English form is pastry, spelled P-A-S-T-R-Y.
Definition
- 1A baked food item made from flour and fat pastes such as pie crust; also tarts, bear claws, napoleons, puff pastries, etc.
- 2The food group formed by the various kinds of pastries.
- 3The type of light flour-based dough used in pastries.
- 4A place where pastry is made.
- 5The act or art of making pastry.
- 6Desserts of all kinds, whether or not these incorporate the baked item made from flour and fat, or that section of a kitchen that prepares these.
Etymology
From Middle English pastre, pastri, from pastree (variant of pasterie, from Old French pastaierie and Medieval Latin pasteria, from Late Latin pasta, from Ancient Greek παστά (pastá)) or paste + -ri (modern paste + -ry).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: apstry,pasrty,passtry,pastrry,pastryy,pasttry,pastyr,patsry,ppastry,psatry
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pastry - 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
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Using “pastry”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-A-S-T-R-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpeɪstɹi/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Patty” - see the side-by-side comparison. pastry vs Patty
- 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.