personal

/ˈpɜː.sə.nəl/

//ˈpɜː.sə.nəl// adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"personal" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“personal” has 12 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #640. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#640
frequency rank, English
4,417
“P” headwords
12
tracked misspellings
7
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Pertaining to persons (human beings as opposed to things or animals).

Corpus desk

Index EN-personal · personal · English

personal · rank #640 · 12 variants · 7 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #640
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 7 pairs
  • VAR-MID 12 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,417
  • PHOTO-FINISH perfect

Nearest frequency peer: perfect (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “personal”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “personal” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

personal vs persons
75% similar
personal vs personnel
78% similar
personal vs personals
89% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for personal
PropertyValue
Headwordpersonal
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
IPA/ˈpɜː.sə.nəl/
Letters8
Frequency rank#640
Misspellings tracked12
Confusable pairs7
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “personal”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).personallands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “perfect” (#639), “security” (#641), “military” (#638). Among 4,417 “P” headwords, “personal” is #640. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 12 spelling variants around personal (IPA /ˈpɜː.sə.nəl/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #640 among 4,417 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 10 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for personal, with forms such as "eprsonal", "perosnal", and "perrsonal". 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 7 confusable-pair relationships, "persons", "personnel", "personals", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English personal, personele, from Anglo-Norman personel, personal, personell, Old French personal, personel, from Late Latin persōnālis (“of a person, personly”), equivalent to person + -al. Doublet of personnel. The correct English form is personal, spelled P-E-R-S-O-N-A-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Pertaining to persons (human beings as opposed to things or animals).
  2. 2
    Of or pertaining to a particular person; relating to, or affecting, an individual, or each of many individuals
  3. 3
    Dealing with subjects about which one wishes (or people usually wish) to maintain privacy or discretion; not for public view; sensitive, intimate.
  4. 4
    Intended for sexual use.
  5. 5
    Pertaining to the external or bodily appearance; corporeal; bodily.
  6. 6
    Done in person; without an intermediary.
  7. 7
    Relating to an individual, their character, conduct, motives, or private affairs, in an invidious and offensive manner
  8. 8
    Of a noun or pronoun, having reference particular to humans and other entities having personality such as a named animal, a deity, a personification, etc.
  9. 9
    Related to grammatical first, second, etc. persons.
  10. 10
    Denoting ownership.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how personal appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. personal values; personal desire
  2. Her song was her personal look at the values of friendship.

Etymology

From Middle English personal, personele, from Anglo-Norman personel, personal, personell, Old French personal, personel, from Late Latin persōnālis (“of a person, personly”), equivalent to person + -al. Doublet of personnel.

This word in other languages

personal(Español)personnel(Français)persönlich(Deutsch)pessoal(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • eprsonal
  • perosnal
  • perrsonal
  • persnoal
  • persoanl
  • personall
  • personla
  • personnal
  • perssonal
  • pesronal
  • ppersonal
  • presonal

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of personal - 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.

eprsonal2perosnal2perrsonal1persnoal2persoanl2personall1personla2personnal1
Edit distance from "personal"

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

How do you spell "personal"?
"personal" is spelled P-E-R-S-O-N-A-L. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈpɜː.sə.nəl/.
What does "personal" mean?
As an adjective, "personal" means: Pertaining to persons (human beings as opposed to things or animals).
What words are commonly confused with "personal"?
"personal" is commonly confused with "persons", "personnel", "personals". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "personal"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "personal" is /ˈpɜː.sə.nəl/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "personal"?
From Middle English personal, personele, from Anglo-Norman personel, personal, personell, Old French personal, personel, from Late Latin persōnālis (“of a person, personly”), equivalent to person + -al. Doublet of personnel. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "personal", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

security#641military#638happened#634industry#656

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).

position12 variantsbeautiful12 variantstraining12 variantswouldn't12 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list