perhaps
per·haps/pəˈhæps/adverb, noun
perhaps is spelled P-E-R-H-A-P-S, 2 syllables: per·haps. The wrong spelling people search most is prehaps: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 46 of all searches for the word. Perhaps is an adverb meaning “Possibly”.
How many letters and syllables are in perhaps?
| Letters | 7: P-E-R-H-A-P-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: per·haps |
| In writing | 123 times per million words; the 851st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 3; the most searched, prehaps, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell perhaps?
Perhaps is spelled P-E-R-H-A-P-S. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 24 of the searches for perhaps in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is perhaps?
Perhaps appears 123 times per million words in written English, the 851st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce perhaps?
- UK /pəˈhæps/
- UK /pəˈɹæps/
- UK /ˈpɹæps/
Perhaps has 2 syllables, split per·haps in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-perhaps.ogg, En-us-perhaps.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of perhaps
- perhap
- perhapses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does perhaps mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
Possibly.
Perhaps John will come over for dinner.
- 2
datedBy chance.
noun
- 1
An uncertainty.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate perhaps?
Wiktionary records 5 abbreviations of perhaps: p'aps, p'raps, perh, perh., praps.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Perhaps in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense indicating a lack of certainty:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | peut-être, possiblement |
| German | vielleicht, wohl |
| Portuguese | talvez |
| Spanish | acaso, quizá, quizás, tal vez, talvez, capaz (que) |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does perhaps come from?
From Middle English perhappes, perhappous, variant of earlier perhap (“perhaps, possibly”), equivalent to per- + hap (“chance, coincidence”) + -s, on model of Middle English parchaunce (modern perchance).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).