pest
/pɛst/
"pest" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pest” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #12,295 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #12,295
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A pestilence, i.e. a deadly epidemic, a deadly plague.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pest |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɛst/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #12,295 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pest” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for pest is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /pɛst/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,295 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for pest, with forms such as "epst", "pesst", and "pestt". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pt", "PS", "put", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: In the 16th century in the sense of "pestilence" and specifically bubonic plague from Middle French peste (“pestilence”) (whence French peste). The other meanings are recorded soon after. Ultimately from Latin pestis. The correct English form is pest, spelled P-E-S-T.
Definition
- 1A pestilence, i.e. a deadly epidemic, a deadly plague.
- 2Any destructive insect that attacks crops or livestock; an agricultural pest.
- 3An annoying person, a nuisance.
- 4An animal regarded as a nuisance, destructive, or a parasite, vermin.
- 5An invasive weed.
Etymology
In the 16th century in the sense of "pestilence" and specifically bubonic plague from Middle French peste (“pestilence”) (whence French peste). The other meanings are recorded soon after. Ultimately from Latin pestis.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: epst,pesst,pestt,ppest,pset
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pest - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “pest”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-E-S-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /pɛst/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “pt” - see the side-by-side comparison. pest vs pt
- 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.