pertinent
/ˈpɚtɪnənt/noun, adjective
pertinent is spelled P-E-R-T-I-N-E-N-T. The wrong spelling people search most is pertinant: about 360 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 22 of all searches for the word. Pertinent is a noun meaning “A right that attaches to land, in Scots law”. The plural of pertinent is pertinents.
How many letters and syllables are in pertinent?
| Letters | 9: P-E-R-T-I-N-E-N-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.3 times per million words; the 18,064th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, pertinant, about 360 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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).
How do you spell pertinent?
Pertinent is spelled P-E-R-T-I-N-E-N-T. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 22 of the searches for pertinent 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 pertinent?
Pertinent appears 2.3 times per million words in written English, the 18,064th 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 pertinent?
- UK /ˈpəːtɪnənt/
- US /ˈpɚtɪnənt/
Pertinent has 3 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-pertinent.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of pertinent
- pertinents plural
- more pertinent comparative
- most pertinent superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does pertinent mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A right that attaches to land, in Scots law.
adjective
- 1
Important with regard to (a subject or matter); pertaining; relevant.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Pertinent in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense pertaining:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | pertinent |
| German | maßgeblich, wesentlich, bedeutend, relevant, in diesem Zusammenhang Bedeutung habend |
| Portuguese | pertinente |
| Spanish | atinado, pertinente |
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 pertinent come from?
Inherited from Middle English pertinent, borrowed from Old French pertinent and Latin pertinēns, pertinentem.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).