penny
/ˈpɛni/
"penny" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“penny” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,393 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,393
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - In the United Kingdom and Ireland and many other countries, a unit of currency worth ¹⁄₂₄₀ of a pound sterling or Irish pound before decimalisation, or a copper coin worth this amount. Abbreviation...
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 | penny |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɛni/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #6,393 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “penny” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for penny is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpɛni/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,393 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for penny, with forms such as "epnny", "pennyy", and "peny". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pony", "pens", "puny", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English peny, from Old English peniġ, penniġ, penning (“penny”), from Proto-West Germanic *panning, from Proto-Germanic *panningaz, of uncertain origin (see that page for theories). Doublet of pfennig and fening. The correct English form is penny, spelled P-E-N-N-Y.
Definition
- 1In the United Kingdom and Ireland and many other countries, a unit of currency worth ¹⁄₂₄₀ of a pound sterling or Irish pound before decimalisation, or a copper coin worth this amount. Abbreviation: d.
- 2In the United Kingdom, a unit of currency worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a pound sterling, or a copper coin worth this amount. Abbreviation: p.
- 3In Ireland, a coin worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of an Irish pound before the introduction of the euro. Abbreviation: p.
- 4In the US and (formerly) Canada, a one-cent coin, worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a dollar. Abbreviation: ¢.
- 5In various countries, a small-denomination copper or brass coin.
- 6A unit of nail size, said to be either the cost per 100 nails, or the number of nails per penny. Abbreviation: d.
- 7Money in general.
Etymology
From Middle English peny, from Old English peniġ, penniġ, penning (“penny”), from Proto-West Germanic *panning, from Proto-Germanic *panningaz, of uncertain origin (see that page for theories). Doublet of pfennig and fening.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: epnny,pennyy,peny,penyn,pneny,ppenny
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of penny - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “penny”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-E-N-N-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpɛni/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “pony” - see the side-by-side comparison. penny vs pony
- 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.