pejorative
/pɪˈd͡ʒoɹətɪv/adjective, noun
pejorative is spelled P-E-J-O-R-A-T-I-V-E. The wrong spelling people search most is perjorative: about 710 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Pejorative is an adjective meaning “Disparaging, belittling or derogatory”.
How many letters and syllables are in pejorative?
| Letters | 10: P-E-J-O-R-A-T-I-V-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 39,832nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, perjorative, about 710 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 pejorative?
Pejorative is spelled P-E-J-O-R-A-T-I-V-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for pejorative 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 pejorative?
Pejorative appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 39,832nd 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 pejorative?
- UK /pɪˈd͡ʒɒɹətɪv/
- US /pɪˈd͡ʒoɹətɪv/
- /pɪˈd͡ʒɑɹ.ə.tɪv/
Pejorative has 4 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)-I_learned_some_phrases-pejorative.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of pejorative
- more pejorative comparative
- most pejorative superlative
- pejoratives plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does pejorative mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Disparaging, belittling or derogatory.
noun
- 1
A disparaging, belittling, or derogatory word or expression.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Pejorative in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense disparaging, belittling or derogatory:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | péjoratif |
| German | abschätzig, abwertend, herabsetzend, verschlechternd, verschlimmernd, pejorativ |
| Portuguese | pejorativo |
| Spanish | peyorativo |
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 pejorative come from?
From Late Latin peiōrātus (“worsened”, past participle of peiōrāre (“worsen”), from Latin peior (“worse”)) + -ive. Compare French péjoratif (“depreciative, disparaging”). By surface analysis, pejorate + -ive.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).