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peasant

/ˈpɛzənt/noun, adjective

peasant is spelled P-E-A-S-A-N-T: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 4.2 times per million words in written English, the 12,578th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, peasant means “A member of the lowly social class that toils on the land, constituted by small farmers and tenants, sharecroppers, farmhands and other laborers on…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of peasant is peasants.

How many letters and syllables are in peasant?

Letters7: P-E-A-S-A-N-T
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing4.2 times per million words; the 12,578th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in 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).

How common is peasant?

Peasant appears 4.2 times per million words in written English, the 12,578th 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 peasant?

  • /ˈpɛzənt/

Peasant 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: En-us-peasant.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of peasant

  • peasants plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does peasant mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A member of the lowly social class that toils on the land, constituted by small farmers and tenants, sharecroppers, farmhands and other laborers on the land where they form the main labor force in agriculture and horticulture.

  2. 2

    A country person.

  3. 3

    derogatoryAn uncouth, crude or ill-bred person.

  4. 4

    A worker unit.

adjective

  1. 1

    Characteristic of or relating to a peasant or peasants; unsophisticated.

    peasant class

  2. 2

    derogatoryobsoleteLowly, vulgar; reprehensible; dishonest.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Peasant in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpaysan, paysanne (member of the agriculture low class), rustique, villageois (country person)
GermanLandleute, Landvolk, Landmann. Bauer (armer), (arme) Bäuerin, (arme) Bauernschaft, Bauerntum (member of the agriculture low class)
Portuguesecamponês, camponesa (member of the agriculture low class), campónio (uncouth, crude, or ill-bred person)
Spanishcampesino, guajiro, guaso, huaso, campesina, payés (member of the agriculture low class)

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 peasant come from?

From Late Middle English paissaunt, from Anglo-Norman paisant, from Old French païsant, païsan (“countryman, peasant”), from païs (“country”), from Latin pāgus (“countryside”) + Old French -enc (“member of”), from Frankish -inc, -ing "-ing"; which was an alteration of earlier Late Latin pāgēnsis (“inhabitant of a district”). Doublet of paisano. Via Latin pāgus cognate with pagan (compare typologically, see there for more).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after peasant