path
/pɑːθ/
"path" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“path” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #2,006. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #2,006
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A trail for the use of, or worn by, pedestrians.
Corpus desk
Index EN-path · path · English
path · rank #2,006 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #2,006
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH plants
Nearest frequency peer: plants (+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 neighbourhood for “path”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- mix
mix
97,998 corpus weight
- museum
museum
97,997 corpus weight
- path
path
97,995 corpus weight
- plants
plants
97,994 corpus weight
- policies
policies
97,993 corpus weight
- promise
promise
97,992 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “path” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | path |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɑːθ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #2,006 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “path” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around path (IPA /pɑːθ/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #2,006 among 4,417 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 9 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for path, with forms such as "apth", "paht", and "pathh". 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, "pt", "put", "pay", 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 path, peth, from Old English pæþ (“path, track”), from Proto-West Germanic *paþ, from Proto-Germanic *paþaz (“path”). The Proto-Germanic term is possibly borrowed from Iranian, from Proto-Iranian *pántaHh, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *pántaH… The correct English form is path, spelled P-A-T-H.
Definition
- 1A trail for the use of, or worn by, pedestrians.
- 2A course taken.
- 3A metaphorical course or route; progress.
- 4A method or direction of proceeding.
- 5A Pagan tradition, for example witchcraft, Wicca, druidism, Heathenry.
- 6A human-readable specification for a location within a hierarchical or tree-like structure, such as a file system or as part of a URL.
- 7A sequence of vertices from one vertex to another using the arcs (edges). A path does not visit the same vertex more than once (unless it is a closed path, where only the first and the last vertex are the same).
- 8A continuous map f from the unit interval I=[0,1] to a topological space X.
- 9A slot available for allocation to a railway train over a given route in between other trains.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how path appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Yet ere to to-morrow's ſun ſhall ſhew his head, / The dewy paths of meadows we will tread, / For crowns and chaplets to adorn thy head.
I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.
Etymology
From Middle English path, peth, from Old English pæþ (“path, track”), from Proto-West Germanic *paþ, from Proto-Germanic *paþaz (“path”). The Proto-Germanic term is possibly borrowed from Iranian, from Proto-Iranian *pántaHh, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *pántaHs, from Proto-Indo-European *póntoh₁s, from the root *pent- (“to pass”), however this is disputed. Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Paad, Pad (“path”), West Frisian paad (“path”), Dutch pad (“path”), German Pfad (“path”), German Low German Padd (“path”), Luxembourgish Pad (“path”). Indo-Iranian cognates could be Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬧𐬙𐬃 (paṇtā̊, “way”), Old Persian 𐎱𐎰 (p-θ /paθi/)), Sanskrit पन्था (panthā, “path”). See also English find. Doublet of panth.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- apth
- paht
- pathh
- patth
- ppath
- ptah
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of path - 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 "path", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "path". Here's where to go from here.
- "path" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "pt". View pair
- 6 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #2,006 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "P" letter cohort. P–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.