# pepper

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈpɛp.ə/ · frequency rank #5,723

## Definitions
1. A plant of the family Piperaceae.
2. A spice prepared from the fermented, dried, unripe berries of this plant.
3. A fruit of the capsicum plant: red, green, yellow or white, hollow and containing seeds, and in a wide range of mild (sweet, nonspicy) to hot (spicy) varieties.
4. A game used by baseball players to warm up where fielders standing close to a batter rapidly return the batted ball to be hit again
5. A randomly-generated value that is added to another value (such as a password) prior to hashing. Unlike a salt, a new one is generated for each value and it is held separately from the value.
6. A beating; a thrashing.
7. A shotgun.

## Etymology
From Middle English peper, piper, from Old English piper, from Proto-West Germanic *pipar, from Latin piper, from an Indo-Aryan source; compare Sanskrit पिप्पलि (pippali, “long pepper”). The name was given to the capsicum fruit because of its unusual spicy taste, not unlike the Old World spice. Cognate with Scots pepar, Saterland Frisian Pieper, West Frisian piper, Dutch peper, German Low German Peper, German Pfeffer, Danish peber, Swedish peppar, Icelandic pipar. Doublet of falafel and peepul.

## Easily confused with
- **Peter** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pepper-vs-peter)
- **piper** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pepper-vs-piper)
- **proper** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pepper-vs-proper)
- **puppet** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pepper-vs-puppet)
- **popper** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pepper-vs-popper)
- **pewter** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pepper-vs-pewter)
- **pester** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pepper-vs-pester)
- **pooper** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pepper-vs-pooper)
- **peppers** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pepper-vs-peppers)
- **prepped** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pepper-vs-prepped)
- **poppers** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pepper-vs-poppers)
- **peppered** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pepper-vs-peppered)
- **peer** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/peer-vs-pepper)
- **Pepe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pepe-vs-pepper)
- **paper** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/paper-vs-pepper)
- **pamper** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pamper-vs-pepper)
- **pauper** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pauper-vs-pepper)

## Common misspellings (7)
`eppper`, `pepepr`, `peper`, `pepperr`, `peppre`, `ppeper`, `ppepper`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/pepper