payment
/ˈpeɪmənt/
"payment" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“payment” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,225 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,225
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The act of paying.
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 | payment |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpeɪmənt/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #2,225 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “payment” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for payment is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpeɪmənt/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,225 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for payment, with forms such as "apyment", "pamyent", and "payemnt". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "pigment", "payments", "parent", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old French paiement. Equivalent to pay + -ment. The correct English form is payment, spelled P-A-Y-M-E-N-T.
Definition
- 1The act of paying.
- 2An instance of that act; a sum of money paid in exchange for goods or services, or the transaction that conveys it.
Etymology
From Old French paiement. Equivalent to pay + -ment.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: apyment,pamyent,payemnt,paymennt,paymentt,paymetn,paymment,paymnet,payyment,ppayment,pyament
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of payment - 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 “payment”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-A-Y-M-E-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpeɪmənt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “pigment” - see the side-by-side comparison. payment vs pigment
- 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.