Peking
/piːˈkɪŋ/
"peking" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Peking” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #23,058 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #23,058
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Dated form of Beijing: a direct-administered municipality, the capital city of China.
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 | Peking |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /piːˈkɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #23,058 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Peking” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Peking is 6 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /piːˈkɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #23,058 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for Peking, with forms such as "epking", "peikng", and "pekign". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ping", "peng", "posing", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: c. 1655 romanization of the Nanking court dialect Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 北京 (Běijīng), reinforced by Postal Romanization from before the modern palatalization of [k] to [t͡ɕ]. The early Portuguese and Jesuits such as Francis Xavier used the spell… The correct English form is Peking, spelled P-E-K-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1Dated form of Beijing: a direct-administered municipality, the capital city of China.
- 2Dated form of Beijing: the government of the People's Republic of China; the central leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.
Etymology
c. 1655 romanization of the Nanking court dialect Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 北京 (Běijīng), reinforced by Postal Romanization from before the modern palatalization of [k] to [t͡ɕ]. The early Portuguese and Jesuits such as Francis Xavier used the spelling Paquim; Abraham Ortelius used C. Paquin for his 1572 Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas; Italian Jesuit Martino Martini used Peking in his 1654 Latin De Bello Tartarico Historia and 1655 Novus Atlas Sinensis, which were quickly translated into English and later used by Joan Blaeu for his 1665 Atlas Maior. Peter Heylyn's Cosmographie changed its spelling from Paquin in the 1652 edition to Peking in the 1658 edition, but both Pekin and Peking were used interchangeably in English until the Chinese Imperial Post adopted Peking as its official transcription in the 1890s.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: epking,peikng,pekign,pekingg,pekinng,pekking,peknig,pkeing,ppeking
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Peking - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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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Using “Peking”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-E-K-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /piːˈkɪŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ping” - see the side-by-side comparison. Peking vs ping
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.