petrel
/ˈpɛt.ɹəl/
"petrel" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“petrel” is uncommon English (frequency #74,393 among 46,516 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #74,393
- frequency rank, English
- 46,516
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of various species of black, grey, or white seabirds in the order Procellariiformes.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | petrel |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɛt.ɹəl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #74,393 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “petrel” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
petrel is uncommon English at frequency #74,393 among 46,516 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈpɛt.ɹəl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of various species of black, grey, or white seabirds in the order Procellariiformes.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for petrel, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From earlier pitteral. Perhaps a diminutive of Peter, with reference to St. Peter's walking on the water (Matthew 14:29). A derivation from patter or pitter-patter has been suggested, for instance by ornithologist Elliott Ladd Coues. The correct English form is petrel, spelled P-E-T-R-E-L.
Definition
- 1Any of various species of black, grey, or white seabirds in the order Procellariiformes.
Etymology
From earlier pitteral. Perhaps a diminutive of Peter, with reference to St. Peter's walking on the water (Matthew 14:29). A derivation from patter or pitter-patter has been suggested, for instance by ornithologist Elliott Ladd Coues.
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.
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Using “petrel”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-E-T-R-E-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpɛt.ɹəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this 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.