payday
/ˈpeɪdeɪ/noun
payday is spelled P-A-Y-D-A-Y: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 4.1 times per million words in written English, the 12,764th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “pay day vs payday” about 30 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, payday means “The day of the week or month, or the specific day, on which an employee's wages or salary is paid” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of payday is paydays.
How many letters and syllables are in payday?
| Letters | 6: P-A-Y-D-A-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.1 times per million words; the 12,764th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is payday?
Payday appears 4.1 times per million words in written English, the 12,764th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce payday?
- /ˈpeɪdeɪ/
Payday has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-payday.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with payday
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: pay day (one word or two).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of payday
- paydays plural
- pay day
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does payday mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The day of the week or month, or the specific day, on which an employee's wages or salary is paid.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Payday in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense day on which an employee's salary is paid:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | jour de paye |
| German | Zahltag |
| Portuguese | dia de pagamento |
| Spanish | día de pago, recompensa |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does payday come from?
From pay + day.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).