perish
/ˈpɛɹ.ɪʃ/
"perish" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“perish” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #19,162 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #19,162
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To decay and disappear; to waste away to nothing.
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 | perish |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈpɛɹ.ɪʃ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #19,162 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “perish” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for perish is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpɛɹ.ɪʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #19,162 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for perish, with forms such as "eprish", "peirsh", and "perihs". 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, "pers", "Perth", "prism", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English perishen, borrowed from Old French perir (via the stem periss- used in various conjugations), from Latin perīre (“pass away, perish”), from per (“through”) + īre (“pass, go”). The correct English form is perish, spelled P-E-R-I-S-H.
Definition
- 1To decay and disappear; to waste away to nothing.
- 2To decay in such a way that it cannot be used for its original purpose
- 3To die; to cease to live.
- 4To cause to perish.
Etymology
From Middle English perishen, borrowed from Old French perir (via the stem periss- used in various conjugations), from Latin perīre (“pass away, perish”), from per (“through”) + īre (“pass, go”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: eprish,peirsh,perihs,perishh,perissh,perrish,persih,pperish,preish
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of perish - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “perish”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-E-R-I-S-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpɛɹ.ɪʃ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “pers” - see the side-by-side comparison. perish vs pers
- 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.