pew
/pjuː/
"pew" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pew” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #16,994) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #16,994
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - One of the long benches in a church, seating several persons, usually fixed to the floor and facing the chancel.
Corpus desk
Index EN-pew · pew · English
pew · rank #16,994 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #16,994
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH Philips
Nearest frequency peer: Philips (+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 “pew”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Paterson
Paterson
83,011 corpus weight
- persuasive
persuasive
83,009 corpus weight
- pew
pew
83,007 corpus weight
- Philips
Philips
83,006 corpus weight
- piled
piled
83,005 corpus weight
- poking
poking
83,004 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “pew” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | pew |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pjuː/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #16,994 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pew” sits in English frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for pew is neighbouring look-alikes ("PM", "PP", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /pjuː/. Frequency #16,994 among 4,417 “P” headwords. 5 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for pew, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "PM", "PP", "PR", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English pewe, from Old French puiee, puïe (“balustrade, balcony”), from Latin podia, plural of podium (“parapet, podium”), from Ancient Greek πόδιον (pódion, “little foot”), from πούς (poús, “foot”). Doublet of podia. The correct English form is pew, spelled P-E-W.
Definition
- 1One of the long benches in a church, seating several persons, usually fixed to the floor and facing the chancel.
- 2The congregation of a church.
- 3An enclosed compartment in a church which provides seating for a group of people, often a prominent family.
- 4Any structure shaped like a church pew, such as a stall, formerly used by money lenders, etc.; a box in a theatre; or a pen or sheepfold.
- 5A chair; a seat.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how pew appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
In many churches some pews are reserved for either clerical or liturgical officials such as canons, or for prominent families.
The pews are filling up, notably with young people, Gen Z's attendance at church has quadrupled in recent years—from a small base, but the significance lies more in the direction of travel.
Etymology
From Middle English pewe, from Old French puiee, puïe (“balustrade, balcony”), from Latin podia, plural of podium (“parapet, podium”), from Ancient Greek πόδιον (pódion, “little foot”), from πούς (poús, “foot”). Doublet of podia.
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 "pew", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
You've looked up "pew". Here's where to go from here.
- "pew" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "PM". View pair
- Usage frequency rank #16,994 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "P" letter cohort. P–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.