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PlainSpell

peeve

/piːv/noun, verb

peeve is spelled P-E-E-V-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,998th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, peeve means “An annoyance or grievance” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of peeve is peeves.

How many letters and syllables are in peeve?

Letters5: P-E-E-V-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 2 million words; the 36,998th 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 peeve?

Peeve appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,998th 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 peeve?

  • /piːv/

Peeve has one syllable (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-peeve.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-peeve.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of peeve

  • peeves plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • peeving participle, present
  • peeved participle, past

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

What does peeve mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    colloquialAn annoyance or grievance.

    stylistic peeve

verb

  1. 1

    colloquialTo annoy; vex.

    He was peeved to note that his hard work had been undone.

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

Peeve in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchénervement, irritation (annoyance or grievance), énerver, irriter (annoy; vex)
GermanÄrgernis, Kümmernis, Ärger, Missstand, Mißstand, Übelstand (annoyance or grievance)
Portuguesechateação (annoyance or grievance), chatear (annoy; vex)
Spanishfastidio (annoyance or grievance), fastidiar (annoy; vex)

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 peeve come from?

Back-formation from peevish.

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

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