pec
"pec" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pec” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #47,251) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #47,251
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The pectoralis major muscle.
Corpus desk
Index EN-pec · pec · English
pec · rank #47,251 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #47,251
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH PCL
Nearest frequency peer: PCL (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “pec”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- passivity
passivity
52,753 corpus weight
- Paterno
Paterno
52,752 corpus weight
- PCL
PCL
52,751 corpus weight
- pec
pec
52,750 corpus weight
- peeks
peeks
52,749 corpus weight
- percussive
percussive
52,748 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “pec” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
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 | pec |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #47,251 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “pec”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for pec is neighbouring look-alikes ("PM", "PP", …), not just typos; it is anoun. Frequency #47,251 among 4,417 “P” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for pec, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "PM", "PP", "PR", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Clipping of pectoral. The correct English form is pec, spelled P-E-C.
Definition
- 1The pectoralis major muscle.
- 2Clipping of pectoral sandpiper.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how pec appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He's flexing his pecs at anyone who'll look.
The quest for perfect pecs is so strong that psychiatrists now sometimes refer to it as “bigorexia,” a form of muscle dysmorphia exhibited mostly by men and characterized by excessive weight lifting, a preoccupation with not feeling muscular enough and a strict adherence to eating foods that lower weight and build muscle.
Etymology
Clipping of pectoral.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "pec", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).