penna

noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

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

The verdict

“penna” is uncommon English (frequency #73,518 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#73,518
frequency rank, English
4,417
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - a contour feather

Corpus desk

Index EN-penna · penna · English

penna · rank #73,518 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #73,518
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,417
  • PHOTO-FINISH penicillium

Nearest frequency peer: penicillium (-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 “penna”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for penna
PropertyValue
Headwordpenna
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters5
Frequency rank#73,518
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “penna” 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).pennafalls 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: “penicillium” (#73,517), “personae” (#73,519), “patristic” (#73,515). Among 4,417 “P” headwords, “penna” is #73,518. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

penna is uncommon English at frequency #73,518 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "a contour feather".

No misspelling variants are generated for penna in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin penna (“feather”). Doublet of panne, pen, and pinna. The correct English form is penna, spelled P-E-N-N-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    a contour feather

Etymology

From Latin penna (“feather”). Doublet of panne, pen, and pinna.

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 "penna"?
"penna" is spelled P-E-N-N-A.
What does "penna" mean?
As a noun, "penna" means: a contour feather
What is the origin of the word "penna"?
From Latin penna (“feather”). Doublet of panne, pen, and pinna. 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 "penna", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

Petry#73,522podge#73,540Praha#73,549nudie#73,486

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list