Pekin

name

"pekin" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“Pekin” is uncommon English (frequency #64,605 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#64,605
frequency rank, English
4,417
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Obsolete form of Peking.

Corpus desk

Index EN-pekin · Pekin · English

Pekin · rank #64,605 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #64,605
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,417
  • PHOTO-FINISH Percocet

Nearest frequency peer: Percocet (+2 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.

Long-tail ranks near “Pekin”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “Pekin” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Pekin
PropertyValue
HeadwordPekin
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechProper noun
Letters5
Frequency rank#64,605
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “Pekin” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).Pekinfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “Percocet” (#64,607), “pharynx” (#64,609), “Patiala” (#64,600). Among 4,417 “P” headwords, “Pekin” is #64,605. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Pekin is uncommon English at frequency #64,605 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for Pekin in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Etymologically, the entry records: Compare Spanish Pekín, Portuguese Pequim, Dutch Peking, French Pékin, German Peking, Italian Pechino. The correct English form is Pekin, spelled P-E-K-I-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Obsolete form of Peking.
  2. 2
    A city, the county seat of Tazewell County, Illinois.
  3. 3
    A hamlet in New York.
  4. 4
    A city and village in North Dakota.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how Pekin appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The same country furnishes me with another instance of extended inland commerce. It is found worth while to keep up a mercantile communication between Pekin in China, and Petersburgh. And none of these instances of inland commerce exceed those of the courses by which, at several periods, the whole of the trade of the East was carried on.
  2. His father, Tchoung-Heou, was living at Pekin when he was born ; and he was six years old when the former settled at Shang-hai.

Etymology

Compare Spanish Pekín, Portuguese Pequim, Dutch Peking, French Pékin, German Peking, Italian Pechino.

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

How do you spell "Pekin"?
"Pekin" is spelled P-E-K-I-N.
What does "Pekin" mean?
As a proper noun, "Pekin" means: Obsolete form of Peking.
What is the origin of the word "Pekin"?
Compare Spanish Pekín, Portuguese Pequim, Dutch Peking, French Pékin, German Peking, Italian Pechino. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Pekin", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list