people
/ˈpi.pəl/
"people" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“people” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #66 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #66
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 13
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - plural of person: a body of persons considered generally or collectively; a group of two or more persons.
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 | people |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpi.pəl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #66 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 13 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “people” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for people is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpi.pəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #66 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for people, with forms such as "epople", "peolpe", and "peopel". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 13 confusable-pair relationships, "pope", "pole", "Pepe", 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 puple, peple, peeple, from Anglo-Norman people, from Old French pueple, peuple, pople, from Latin populus (“a people, nation”), from Old Latin populus, from earlier poplus, from even earlier poplos, from Proto-Italic *poplos (“army”) of … The correct English form is people, spelled P-E-O-P-L-E.
Definition
- 1plural of person: a body of persons considered generally or collectively; a group of two or more persons.
- 2Persons forming or belonging to a particular group, such as a nation, class, ethnic group, country, family, etc.
- 3A group of persons regarded as being servants, followers, companions or subjects of a ruler or leader.
- 4One's colleagues or employees.
- 5A person's ancestors, relatives or family.
- 6The mass of a community as distinguished from a special class (elite); the commonalty; the populace; the vulgar; the common crowd; the citizens.
- 7People in general, humans, by extension sentient beings real or fictional.
Etymology
From Middle English puple, peple, peeple, from Anglo-Norman people, from Old French pueple, peuple, pople, from Latin populus (“a people, nation”), from Old Latin populus, from earlier poplus, from even earlier poplos, from Proto-Italic *poplos (“army”) of unknown origin. Doublet of pueblo. Gradually ousted native English lede and, partially, folk. Originally used with singular verbs (e.g. "the people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness" in the King James Version of 2 Samuel 17:29), the plural aspect of people is probably due to influence from Middle English lede, leed, a plural since Old English times; see lēode.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: epople,peolpe,peopel,peoplle,peopple,pepole,poeple,ppeople
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of people - 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 “people”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-E-O-P-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpi.pəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “pope” - see the side-by-side comparison. people vs pope
- 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.