pedestal
/ˈpɛdɪstəl/noun, verb
pedestal is spelled P-E-D-E-S-T-A-L. The wrong spelling people search most is pedestral: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 385 of all searches for the word. Pedestal is a noun meaning “The base or foot of a column, statue, vase, lamp”. The plural of pedestal is pedestals.
How many letters and syllables are in pedestal?
| Letters | 8: P-E-D-E-S-T-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.2 times per million words; the 18,297th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, pedestral, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell pedestal?
Pedestal is spelled P-E-D-E-S-T-A-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 390 of the searches for pedestal in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is pedestal?
Pedestal appears 2.2 times per million words in written English, the 18,297th 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 pedestal?
- /ˈpɛdɪstəl/
- /ˈpɛdɪsˌtuːl/
Pedestal has 3 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-pedestal.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of pedestal
- pedestals plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- pedestaling US, participle, present
- pedestalling UK, participle, present
- pedestaled US, participle, past
- pedestalled UK, participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does pedestal mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The base or foot of a column, statue, vase, lamp.
- 2
A place of reverence or honor.
He has put his mother on a pedestal. You can't say a word against her.
- 3
A casting secured to the frame of a truck of a railcar and forming a jaw for holding a journal box.
- 4
A pillow block; a low housing.
- 5
An iron socket, or support, for the foot of a brace at the end of a truss where it rests on a pier.
- 6
a pedestal coil, group of connected straight pipes arranged side by side and one above another, used in a radiator.
- 7
A ground-level housing for a passive connection point for underground cables.
- 8
The measured value when no input signal is given.
verb
- 1
To set or support on (or as if on) a pedestal.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Pedestal in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense the base or foot of a column, statue, vase, lamp, or the like:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | piédestal |
| German | Sockel, Podest, Piedestal, Postament, Stand, Basis |
| Portuguese | pedestal |
| Spanish | pedestal, peana |
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 pedestal come from?
Borrowed from Middle French piédestal, itself borrowed from Italian piedistallo (literally “foot stand”). Spelling influenced by Latin pēs, pedem.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).