pelt
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "pelt", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "pelt" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "pelt" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
pelt is aEnglishnoun. It means: The skin of an animal with the hair or wool on; either a raw or undressed hide, or a skin preserved with the hair or wool on it (sometimes worn as a garment with minimal modification). Pronounced /pɛlt/. Often confused with pt and PL.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pelt |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɛlt/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #33,360 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for pelt is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /pɛlt/. Corpus data places it at rank #33,360 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for pelt, with forms such as "eplt", "pellt", and "peltt". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pt", "PL", "put", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is inherited from Middle English pelt (“skin of a sheep, especially without the wool”); further etymology uncertain, possibly: * from Middle English pellet (“skin of an animal, especially a sheep”), from Anglo-Norman pelette, pellet, and Old French… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is pelt, spelled P-E-L-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The skin of an animal with the hair or wool on; either a raw or undressed hide, or a skin preserved with the hair or wool on it (sometimes worn as a garment with minimal modification).
- 2The skin of an animal (especially a goat or sheep) with the hair or wool removed, often in preparation for tanning.
- 3The fur or hair of a living animal.
- 4Human skin, especially when bare; also, a person's hair.
- 5A garment made from animal skins.
- 6The body of any quarry killed by a hawk; also, a dead bird given to a hawk for food.
Etymology
The noun is inherited from Middle English pelt (“skin of a sheep, especially without the wool”); further etymology uncertain, possibly: * from Middle English pellet (“skin of an animal, especially a sheep”), from Anglo-Norman pelette, pellet, and Old French pelete, pelette (“thin layer, film, skin; epidermis; foreskin”), from pel (“skin; garment made of animal skin, pelisse”) (from Latin pellis (“animal skin, hide, pelt; leather; garment made of animal skin”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to cover; to wrap; hide; skin; cloth”)) + -ete (diminutive suffix); or * from Late Latin peletta, pelleta, pelletta (“skin of an animal, especially a sheep”). The verb is derived from the noun. Cognates * Norwegian Bokmål pels (“fur; fur coat”) * Norwegian Nynorsk pels (“fur; fur coat”)
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: eplt,pellt,peltt,petl,plet,ppelt
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for pelt
Misspelling Variants of "pelt"
Frequency rank: #33,360 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "pelt"?
What does "pelt" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "pelt"?
How do you pronounce "pelt"?
What is the origin of the word "pelt"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter P in our English index: