perturbation
"perturbation" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“perturbation” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #43,839 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #43,839
- frequency rank, English
- 12
- letters
- 19
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Agitation; the state of being perturbed.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | perturbation |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #43,839 |
| Misspellings tracked | 19 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “perturbation” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for perturbation is 12 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #43,839 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 19 likely wrong-spelling variants for perturbation, with forms such as "eprturbation", "perrturbation", and "pertrubation". 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. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Middle French perturbation, from Old French perturbacion, from Latin perturbatio. The correct English form is perturbation, spelled P-E-R-T-U-R-B-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1Agitation; the state of being perturbed.
- 2A small change in a physical system, or more broadly any definable system (such as a biological or economic system).
- 3Variation in an orbit due to the influence of external bodies.
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French perturbation, from Old French perturbacion, from Latin perturbatio.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: eprturbation,perrturbation,pertrubation,pertturbation,pertubration,perturabtion,perturbaiton,perturbasion,perturbatino,perturbationn,perturbatoin,perturbattion,perturbbation,perturbtaion,perturrbation,perutrbation,petrurbation,pperturbation,preturbation
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of perturbation - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “perturbation”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-E-R-T-U-R-B-A-T-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.