persuade
per·suade/pə(ɹ)ˈsweɪd/verb
persuade is spelled P-E-R-S-U-A-D-E, 2 syllables: per·suade. The wrong spelling people search most is pursuade: about 80 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 19 of all searches for the word. Persuade is a verb meaning “To successfully convince (someone) to agree to, accept, or do something, usually through reasoning and verbal…”.
How many letters and syllables are in persuade?
| Letters | 8: P-E-R-S-U-A-D-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: per·suade |
| In writing | 6.6 times per million words; the 9,313th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, pursuade, about 80 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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).
How do you spell persuade?
Persuade is spelled P-E-R-S-U-A-D-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 19 of the searches for persuade 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 persuade?
Persuade appears 6.6 times per million words in written English, the 9,313th 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 persuade?
- /pə(ɹ)ˈsweɪd/
Persuade has 2 syllables, split per·suade in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-persuade.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of persuade
- persuades present, singular, he/she/it
- persuading participle, present
- persuaded participle, past
- perswade
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does persuade mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To successfully convince (someone) to agree to, accept, or do something, usually through reasoning and verbal influence.
That salesman was able to persuade me into buying this bottle of lotion.
- 2
obsoleteTo convince of by argument, or by reasons offered or suggested from reflection, etc.; to cause to believe (something).
- 3
archaicTo urge, plead; to try to convince (someone to do something).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Persuade in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to successfully convince (someone) to agree to:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | persuader, convaincre |
| German | überreden, gewinnen, verführen, bestechen, dazu bringen |
| Portuguese | persuadir |
| Spanish | persuadir, chamuyar |
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 persuade come from?
From Latin persuādeō (“to persuade”). Cognate to for, sweet.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).