peak
/piːk/
"peak" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“peak” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,847 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,847
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A point; the sharp end or top of anything that terminates in a point; as, the peak, or front, of a cap.
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 | peak |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /piːk/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #2,847 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “peak” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for peak is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /piːk/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,847 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for peak, with forms such as "epak", "paek", and "peakk". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "PK", "per", "pet", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From earlier peake, peek, peke, from Middle English pek (in place names), itself an alteration of pike, pyke, pyk (“a sharp point, pike”), from Old English pīc, piic (“a pike, needle, pin, peak, pinnacle”), from Proto-West Germanic *pīk, from Proto-Germanic… The correct English form is peak, spelled P-E-A-K.
Definition
- 1A point; the sharp end or top of anything that terminates in a point; as, the peak, or front, of a cap.
- 2The highest value reached by some quantity in a time period.
- 3The top, or one of the tops, of a hill, mountain, or range, ending in a point.
- 4The whole hill or mountain, especially when isolated.
- 5visor (horizontal part of a cap sticking out in front and shading the wearer's eyes)
- 6The upper aftermost corner of a fore-and-aft sail.
- 7The narrow part of a vessel's bow, or the hold within it.
- 8The extremity of an anchor fluke; the bill.
- 9A local maximum of a function, e.g. for sine waves, each point at which the value of y is at its maximum.
- 10Something of exceptional quality.
Etymology
From earlier peake, peek, peke, from Middle English pek (in place names), itself an alteration of pike, pyke, pyk (“a sharp point, pike”), from Old English pīc, piic (“a pike, needle, pin, peak, pinnacle”), from Proto-West Germanic *pīk, from Proto-Germanic *pīkaz (“peak”). Cognate with Dutch piek (“pike, point, summit, peak”), Danish pik (“pike, peak”), Swedish pik (“pike, lance, point, peak”), Norwegian pik (“peak, summit”). More at pike.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: epak,paek,peakk,peka,ppeak
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of peak - 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 “peak”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-E-A-K - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /piːk/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “PK” - see the side-by-side comparison. peak vs PK
- 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.