pervade
/pɜː(ɹ)ˈveɪd/
"pervade" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pervade” is uncommon English (frequency #78,011 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #78,011
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To be in every part of; to spread through; to permeate.
Corpus desk
Index EN-pervade · pervade · English
pervade · rank #78,011 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #78,011
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH Perris
Nearest frequency peer: Perris (-2 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.
Long-tail ranks near “pervade”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Pema
Pema
21,995 corpus weight
- percolation
percolation
21,994 corpus weight
- perpendicul…
perpendicularly
21,993 corpus weight
- Perris
Perris
21,992 corpus weight
- pervade
pervade
21,990 corpus weight
- Petros
Petros
21,987 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “pervade” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pervade |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /pɜː(ɹ)ˈveɪd/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #78,011 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “pervade” in English
Rare enough to double-check
pervade is uncommon English at frequency #78,011 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /pɜː(ɹ)ˈveɪd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To be in every part of; to spread through; to permeate.".
Zero misspellings are on record for pervade in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Latin pervādō. The correct English form is pervade, spelled P-E-R-V-A-D-E.
Definition
- 1To be in every part of; to spread through; to permeate.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how pervade appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Cruel wars pervade history.
"I ought to arise and go forth with timbrels and with dances; but, do you know, I am not inclined to revels? There has been a little—just a very little bit too much festivity so far …. Not that I don't adore dinners and gossip and dances; not that I do not love to pervade bright and glittering places.[…]"
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin pervādō.
This word in other languages
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "pervade", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).