Pennsylvania Dutch
"pennsylvania-dutch" is a 17-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Pennsylvania Dutch” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 18
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Those people of German origin who settled in the Pennsylvania area prior to 1800, and their descendants.
Corpus desk
Index EN-pennsylvania-dutch · Pennsylvania Dutch · English
Pennsylvania Dutch · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 18 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Pennsylvania Dutch |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 18 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “Pennsylvania Dutch” in English
Rare enough to double-check
Pennsylvania Dutch is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for Pennsylvania Dutch, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From their primary residence in Pennsylvania and from , their own endonym, gradually modified under influence from Dutch. The correct English form is Pennsylvania Dutch, spelled P-E-N-N-S-Y-L-V-A-N-I-A- -D-U-T-C-H.
Definition
- 1Those people of German origin who settled in the Pennsylvania area prior to 1800, and their descendants.
- 2Their language, Pennsylvania German, a High German language descended from Palatine German.
- 3The Old Order Amish.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how Pennsylvania Dutch appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The holiday evolved over centuries as it was observed by different groups, from the Celts to Germans to the Pennsylvania Dutch and eventually, by those in other parts of the US.
Etymology
From their primary residence in Pennsylvania and from , their own endonym, gradually modified under influence from Dutch.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.