Pathan
/pəˈtɑːn/
"pathan" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Pathan” is uncommon English (frequency #63,876 among 46,516 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #63,876
- frequency rank, English
- 46,516
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Synonym of Pashtun; a member of the Pashto-speaking people of today’s north-west Pakistan and south-east Afghanistan.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Pathan |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pəˈtɑːn/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #63,876 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Pathan” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Pathan is uncommon English at frequency #63,876 among 46,516 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /pəˈtɑːn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Synonym of Pashtun; a member of the Pashto-speaking people of today’s north-west Pakistan and south-east Afghanistan.".
Pathan doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Hindustani پٹھان / पठान (paṭhān). Doublet of Pashtun. The correct English form is Pathan, spelled P-A-T-H-A-N.
Definition
- 1Synonym of Pashtun; a member of the Pashto-speaking people of today’s north-west Pakistan and south-east Afghanistan.
Etymology
Borrowed from Hindustani پٹھان / पठान (paṭhān). Doublet of Pashtun.
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 “Pathan”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-A-T-H-A-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /pəˈtɑːn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.