personal
per·son·al·,·perso·nal/ˈpɜɹ.sə.nəl/adjective, noun
personal is spelled P-E-R-S-O-N-A-L, 6 syllables: per·son·al·,·perso·nal. The wrong spelling people search most is personel: about 2,060 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Personal is an adjective meaning “Pertaining to persons (human beings as opposed to things or animals)”.
How many letters and syllables are in personal?
| Letters | 8: P-E-R-S-O-N-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 6: per·son·al·,·perso·nal |
| In writing | 158 times per million words; the 638th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 3; the most searched, personel, about 2,060 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 personal?
Personal is spelled P-E-R-S-O-N-A-L. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for personal in either form.
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 personal?
Personal appears 158 times per million words in written English, the 638th 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 personal?
- UK /ˈpɜː.sə.nəl/
- UK /ˈpɜːs.nəl/
- US /ˈpɜɹ.sə.nəl/
Personal has 6 syllables, split per·son·al·,·perso·nal in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-personal.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with personal
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with personal?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as personal from its last stressed vowel (/ɜɹsənəl/):
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 personal
- more personal comparative
- most personal superlative
- personals plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does personal mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Pertaining to persons (human beings as opposed to things or animals).
- 2
Of or pertaining to a particular person; relating to, or affecting, an individual, or each of many individuals
personal values; personal desire
- 3
Dealing with subjects about which one wishes (or people usually wish) to maintain privacy or discretion; not for public view; sensitive, intimate.
personal reasons
- 4
Intended for sexual use.
personal lubricant; personal massager
- 5
Pertaining to the external or bodily appearance; corporeal; bodily.
personal charms
- 6
Done in person; without an intermediary.
a personal interview
- 7
Relating to an individual, their character, conduct, motives, or private affairs, in an invidious and offensive manner
personal reflections or remarks
- 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.
noun
- 1
An advertisement by which an individual attempts to meet others with similar interests.
- 2
One's own property or asset
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate personal?
Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of personal: Pers., pers..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Personal in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | personnel , en personne |
| German | persönlich , Personal- |
| Portuguese | pessoal |
| Spanish | personal |
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 personal come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).