periwig
/ˈpɛɹɪwɪɡ/noun, verb
periwig is a noun meaning “A wig, especially any kind of stylised wig as formerly worn by men and women” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-E-R-I-W-I-G, and it appears about once in every 69 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of periwig is periwigs.
What does periwig mean?
noun
- 1
A wig, especially any kind of stylised wig as formerly worn by men and women.
The floods in icie fetters bound. Crusted earth. Every honey-headed twig Wears his snowie Periwig, And every bough his snowy beard.
verb
- 1
To dress with a periwig, or with false hair; to bewig.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce periwig?
- /ˈpɛɹɪwɪɡ/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-periwig.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of periwig
- periwigs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- periwigging participle, present
- periwigged participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is periwig?
Periwig appears about once in every 69 million words in written English, the 262,293rd 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).
Where does periwig come from?
Alteration of Middle French perruque. Doublet of peruke.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).