peasant
/ˈpɛzənt/
"peasant" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“peasant” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #12,653 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #12,653
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - 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 ...
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 | peasant |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɛzənt/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #12,653 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “peasant” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for peasant is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpɛzənt/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,653 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for peasant, with forms such as "epasant", "paesant", and "peaasnt". 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, "pendant", "pennant", "pleasant", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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 al… The correct English form is peasant, spelled P-E-A-S-A-N-T.
Definition
- 1A 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.
- 2A country person.
- 3An uncouth, crude or ill-bred person.
- 4A worker unit.
Etymology
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.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: epasant,paesant,peaasnt,peasannt,peasantt,peasatn,peasnat,peassant,pesaant,ppeasant
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of peasant - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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
How do you spell "peasant"?
What does "peasant" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "peasant"?
How do you pronounce "peasant"?
What is the origin of the word "peasant"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “peasant”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-E-A-S-A-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpɛzənt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “pendant” - see the side-by-side comparison. peasant vs pendant
- 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.