perishable
"perishable" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“perishable” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #37,153 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #37,153
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
- 16
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Liable to perish, especially naturally subject to quick decomposition or decay.
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 | perishable |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #37,153 |
| Misspellings tracked | 16 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “perishable” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for perishable is 10 letters long, classified as an adjective. Corpus data places it at rank #37,153 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Liable to perish, especially naturally subject to quick decomposition or decay.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 16 likely wrong-spelling variants for perishable, with forms such as "eprishable", "peirshable", and "perihsable". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "punishable", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English *persishable, perysabyl, equivalent to perish + -able. Compare Old French perissable (and modern French périssable). The correct English form is perishable, spelled P-E-R-I-S-H-A-B-L-E.
Definition
- 1Liable to perish, especially naturally subject to quick decomposition or decay.
Etymology
From Middle English *persishable, perysabyl, equivalent to perish + -able. Compare Old French perissable (and modern French périssable).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: eprishable,peirshable,perihsable,perisahble,perishabble,perishabel,perishablle,perishalbe,perishbale,perishhable,perishible,perisshable,perrishable,persihable,pperishable,preishable
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of perishable - 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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Using “perishable”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-E-R-I-S-H-A-B-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “punishable” - see the side-by-side comparison. perishable vs punishable
- 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.