père
/pɛə(ɹ)/
"pere" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“père” is uncommon English (frequency #66,962 among 46,516 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #66,962
- frequency rank, English
- 46,516
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A priest of the Roman Catholic Church, especially a French one. Also used as a title preceding the name of such a priest.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | père |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɛə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #66,962 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “père” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
père is uncommon English at frequency #66,962 among 46,516 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /pɛə(ɹ)/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for père, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French père (“father”), from Latin pater. Doublet of ayr, faeder, father, padre, and pater. The correct English form is père, spelled P-È-R-E.
Definition
- 1A priest of the Roman Catholic Church, especially a French one. Also used as a title preceding the name of such a priest.
- 2Sr. - Used after a proper name that is common to a father and his son to indicate that the father is being referred to rather than the son (junior, fils).
Etymology
Borrowed from French père (“father”), from Latin pater. Doublet of ayr, faeder, father, padre, and pater.
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 “père”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-È-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /pɛə(ɹ)/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.