peak
/piːk/noun, verb, adjective
peak is spelled P-E-A-K. The wrong spelling people search most is peam: about 110 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 263 of all searches for the word. Peak is a noun meaning “A point; the sharp end or top of anything that terminates in a point; as, the peak, or front, of a cap”. The plural of peak is peaks.
How many letters and syllables are in peak?
| Letters | 4: P-E-A-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 34 times per million words; the 2,831st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, peam, about 110 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Same letters |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell peak?
Peak is spelled P-E-A-K. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 265 of the searches for peak in either form.
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). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is peak?
Peak appears 34 times per million words in written English, the 2,831st 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 peak?
- /piːk/
Peak has one syllable (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-peak.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with peak
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: peek, peke, pique (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: pea.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with peak?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as peak.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: pake.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of peak
- peaks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- peaking participle, present
- peaked participle, past
- more peak comparative
- most peak superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does peak mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A point; the sharp end or top of anything that terminates in a point; as, the peak, or front, of a cap.
- 2
The highest value reached by some quantity in a time period.
The stock market reached a peak in September 1929.
- 3
The top, or one of the tops, of a hill, mountain, or range, ending in a point.
They reached the peak after 8 hours of climbing.
- 4
The whole hill or mountain, especially when isolated.
- 5
UKvisor (horizontal part of a cap sticking out in front and shading the wearer's eyes)
- 6
The upper aftermost corner of a fore-and-aft sail.
peak-halyards
- 7
The narrow part of a vessel's bow, or the hold within it.
- 8
The extremity of an anchor fluke; the bill.
- 9
Alternative form of peag (“wampum”).
verb
- 1
To raise the point of (a gaff) closer to perpendicular.
- 2
To exceed the maximum signal amplitude of (a piece of equipment), resulting in clipping of the signal.
- 3
To reach a highest degree or maximum.
Historians argue about when the Roman Empire began to peak and ultimately decay.
- 4
To rise or extend into a peak or point; to form, or appear as, a peak.
- 5
To reach the highest level of success or greatness in one's lifetime.
- 6
To reach the point of strongest effect from a drug.
- 7
Ellipsis of peak trans.
- 8
To become sick or wan.
- 9
To acquire sharpness of figure or features; hence, to look thin or sickly.
- 10
To pry; to peep slyly.
adjective
- 1
At the greatest extent; maximum.
peak oil, Peak TV
- 2
slangMaximal, quintessential, archetypical, strictly with positive connotations; representing the culmination of its type.
Knowing obscure 19th-century slang is peak nerd.
- 3
Bad.
- 4
Unlucky; unfortunate.
You didn't get a spot? That's peak.
- 5
Very good or high-quality.
That movie last night was so peak.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Peak in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | pic , sommet , cime |
| Portuguese | ponta , cume, pico , topo |
| Spanish | punta , pico, plenitud , cima, cumbre , culminar |
| German | Höchststand , Gipfel , kulminieren, gipfeln , Maximum |
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 peak come from?
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”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).