Percy
/ˈpɜːsi/
"percy" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Percy” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #11,934. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #11,934
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An English surname from Old French.
Corpus desk
Index EN-percy · Percy · English
Percy · rank #11,934 · 8 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #11,934
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 8 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH peppers
Nearest frequency peer: peppers (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “Percy”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- peasants
peasants
88,070 corpus weight
- pence
pence
88,069 corpus weight
- peppers
peppers
88,068 corpus weight
- Percy
Percy
88,067 corpus weight
- Perez
Perez
88,066 corpus weight
- peripheral
peripheral
88,065 corpus weight
What this shows “Percy” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | Percy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɜːsi/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #11,934 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “Percy”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 8 spelling variants around Percy (IPA /ˈpɜːsi/), aproper noun. Corpus frequency is #11,934 among 4,417 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for Percy, with forms such as "eprcy", "pecry", and "perccy". 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, "PRC", "pry", "pray", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Proper noun proper noun sense 1 (surname) and proper noun sense 3 (place names) are derived from Norman Percy (“a baronial surname”), from Percy-en-Auge (“a place in Pays d’Auge, Normandy, France”, literally “Percy in Auge”), from Old French Perci, from Lat… The correct English form is Percy, spelled P-E-R-C-Y.
Definition
- 1An English surname from Old French.
- 2A male given name transferred from the surname or from a clipping of Percival, of Middle Ages and later usage.
- 3A place name:
- 4A place name:
- 5A place name:
- 6A place name:
- 7A place name:
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how Percy appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Hot[spur]. My name is Harry Percy. / Pr[ince]. VVhy then I ſee / A very valiant rebel of that name; / I am the Prince of VVales, and thinke not Percy / To ſhare vvith me in glory any more: / Tvvo ſtars keepe not their motion in one ſphere, / Nor can one England brooke a double raigne / Of Harry Percy and the Prince of VVales.
Speaking of Sligo, I have written again to ask if I may visit there sometime soon, and talk to the administrator, who it turns out is an old acquaintance, a man called Percival Quinn, I think the only Percy I have heard of in the present era, let alone met. […] [T]here may be other files there that even Percy feels can't be communicated, but I don't know.
Etymology
Proper noun proper noun sense 1 (surname) and proper noun sense 3 (place names) are derived from Norman Percy (“a baronial surname”), from Percy-en-Auge (“a place in Pays d’Auge, Normandy, France”, literally “Percy in Auge”), from Old French Perci, from Late Latin Persiacum, from Latin Persius (“a Gallo-Roman nomen gentile”), from Etruscan 𐌐𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (persu); further etymology uncertain, possibly from 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu, “mask”). Proper noun proper noun sense 2 (given name) is either from the above, or is a clipping of Perc(ival) + -y (suffix forming familiar names). The common noun is derived from the proper noun. Noun sense 2 (“penis”) is probably from the fact that Percy and penis begin with the same letter.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- eprcy
- pecry
- perccy
- percyy
- perrcy
- peryc
- ppercy
- precy
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Percy - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Percy", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).