pend
/pɛnd/
"pend" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pend” is uncommon English (frequency #82,651 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #82,651
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To hang down; to cause something to hang down
Corpus desk
Index EN-pend · pend · English
pend · rank #82,651 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #82,651
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH Penarth
Nearest frequency peer: Penarth (-1 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 “pend”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- patrilineal
patrilineal
17,354 corpus weight
- Penarth
Penarth
17,351 corpus weight
- pend
pend
17,350 corpus weight
- pentathlon
pentathlon
17,349 corpus weight
- perfumer
perfumer
17,346 corpus weight
- Perryville
Perryville
17,345 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “pend” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pend |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /pɛnd/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #82,651 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “pend” in English
Rare enough to double-check
pend is uncommon English at frequency #82,651 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /pɛnd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for pend in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Middle French pendre (“to hang”), from Late Latin pendĕre, from Latin pendēre. The correct English form is pend, spelled P-E-N-D.
Definition
- 1To hang down; to cause something to hang down
- 2To arch over (something); to vault.
- 3To hang in reliance on; to depend (on or upon); to be contingent on.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how pend appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
pending upon certain powerful motives
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French pendre (“to hang”), from Late Latin pendĕre, from Latin pendēre.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "pend", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).