pestis
"pestis" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pestis” is uncommon English (frequency #92,999 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #92,999
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - Plague.
Corpus desk
Index EN-pestis · pestis · English
pestis · rank #92,999 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #92,999
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH Pessoa
Nearest frequency peer: Pessoa (-1 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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “pestis”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- perforate
perforate
7,007 corpus weight
- permalink
permalink
7,005 corpus weight
- Pessoa
Pessoa
7,003 corpus weight
- pestis
pestis
7,002 corpus weight
- phenology
phenology
7,000 corpus weight
- philosophiz…
philosophizing
6,998 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “pestis” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pestis |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #92,999 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pestis” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
pestis is uncommon English at frequency #92,999 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Plague.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for pestis, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is pestis, spelled P-E-S-T-I-S.
Definition
- 1Plague.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how pestis appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
page 198: [...] a name ordinarily given, then and for ages preceding, to the bubonic pestis. page 213: Another species of pestis in Sauvages Nosology is, from the accounts of various writers on the Lues bovilla, intimately connected with that [of distemper].
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "pestis", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
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.