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PlainSpell

perpendicular

/ˌpɝ.pənˈdɪk.ju.lɚ/adjective, noun

perpendicular is spelled P-E-R-P-E-N-D-I-C-U-L-A-R. The wrong spelling people search most is perpindicular: about 390 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 28 of all searches for the word. Perpendicular is an adjective meaning “At or forming a right angle (to something)”.

How many letters and syllables are in perpendicular?

Letters13: P-E-R-P-E-N-D-I-C-U-L-A-R
Syllables5 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.9 times per million words; the 19,825th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, perpindicular, about 390 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell perpendicular?

Perpendicular is spelled P-E-R-P-E-N-D-I-C-U-L-A-R. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 28 of the searches for perpendicular in either form.

perpendicularthe right spelling10,470 searches a month
perpindiculari in place of e390 searches a month

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 perpendicular?

Perpendicular appears 1.9 times per million words in written English, the 19,825th 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 perpendicular?

  • UK /ˌpɜː.pənˈdɪk.jə.lə(ɹ)/
  • US /ˌpɝ.pənˈdɪk.ju.lɚ/
  • US /ˌpɝ.pənˈdɪk.jə.lɚ/

Perpendicular has 5 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-perpendicular.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with perpendicular?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as perpendicular from its last stressed vowel (/ɪkjuləɹ/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of perpendicular

  • more perpendicular comparative
  • most perpendicular superlative
  • perpendiculars plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does perpendicular mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    At or forming a right angle (to something).

    In most houses, the walls are perpendicular to the floor.

  2. 2

    Exactly upright; extending in a straight line toward the centre of the earth, etc.

  3. 3

    Independent of or irrelevant to each other; orthogonal.

noun

  1. 1

    A line or plane that is perpendicular to another.

  2. 2

    A device such as a plumb line that is used in making or marking a perpendicular line.

  3. 3

    obsoleteslangA meal eaten at a tavern bar while standing up.

adjective

as Perpendicular
  1. 1

    Of a style of English Gothic architecture from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, marked by stiff and rectilinear lines, mostly vertical window-tracery, depressed or four-centre arch, fan-tracery vaulting, and panelled walls.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate perpendicular?

Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of perpendicular: perp, perp..

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Perpendicular in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchperpendiculaire (at or forming a right angle to), fil à plomb (device)
Germanrechtwinklig, lotrecht, senkrecht, perpendikular, perpendikulär (at or forming a right angle to), Lotrechte (line or plane)
Portugueseperpendicular (at or forming a right angle to)
Spanishperpendicular (at or forming a right angle to)

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 perpendicular come from?

Derived from Middle French perpendiculaire, from Old French perpendiculer, from Latin perpendiculum (“plumb line”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after perpendicular