peal
/piːl/
"peal" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“peal” is an uncommon English word, ranked #58,923 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #58,923
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A loud sound, or a succession of loud sounds, as of bells, thunder, cannon, shouts, laughter, of a multitude, etc.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | peal |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /piːl/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #58,923 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “peal” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for peal is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /piːl/. Corpus data places it at rank #58,923 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for peal in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English pele, peil, probably an apheretic variant of Middle English apel, appel, from Old French apel (“an appeal; pealing of bells”). Compare appeal. The correct English form is peal, spelled P-E-A-L.
Definition
- 1A loud sound, or a succession of loud sounds, as of bells, thunder, cannon, shouts, laughter, of a multitude, etc.
- 2A set of bells tuned to each other according to the diatonic scale.
- 3The changes rung on a set of bells; in the strict sense a full peal of at least 5040 changes.
Etymology
From Middle English pele, peil, probably an apheretic variant of Middle English apel, appel, from Old French apel (“an appeal; pealing of bells”). Compare appeal.
This word in other languages
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 “peal”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-E-A-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /piːl/ (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
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.