# peasant

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈpɛzənt/ · frequency rank #12,653

## Definitions
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. A country person.
3. An uncouth, crude or ill-bred person.
4. A 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.

## Easily confused with
- **pendant** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/peasant-vs-pendant)
- **pennant** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/peasant-vs-pennant)
- **pleasant** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/peasant-vs-pleasant)
- **peasants** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/peasant-vs-peasants)
- **pheasant** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/peasant-vs-pheasant)
- **peasantry** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/peasant-vs-peasantry)

## Common misspellings (10)
`epasant`, `paesant`, `peaasnt`, `peasannt`, `peasantt`, `peasatn`, `peasnat`, `peassant`, `pesaant`, `ppeasant`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/peasant