persona
/pɝˈsoʊnə/
"persona" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“persona” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #11,436 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #11,436
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A social role.
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 | persona |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɝˈsoʊnə/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #11,436 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “persona” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for persona is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /pɝˈsoʊnə/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,436 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 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for persona, with forms such as "eprsona", "perosna", and "perrsona". 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 9 confusable-pair relationships, "persons", "Pierson", "personal", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin persōna (“mask; character”), of uncertain origin. Suggested to be from Etruscan 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu, “mask; masked individual; actor”), which could be a loan from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον (prósōpon, “face; appearance; mask used in ancient th… The correct English form is persona, spelled P-E-R-S-O-N-A.
Definition
- 1A social role.
- 2A character played by an actor.
- 3The mask or appearance one presents to the world.
- 4An imaginary person representing a particular type of client or customer, considered when designing products and services that will appeal to them.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin persōna (“mask; character”), of uncertain origin. Suggested to be from Etruscan 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu, “mask; masked individual; actor”), which could be a loan from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον (prósōpon, “face; appearance; mask used in ancient theatre to denote a character or, more generally, a social role”). Doublet of person and parson.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: eprsona,perosna,perrsona,persnoa,persoan,personna,perssona,pesrona,ppersona,presona
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of persona - 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 “persona”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-E-R-S-O-N-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /pɝˈsoʊnə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “persons” - see the side-by-side comparison. persona vs persons
- 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.