ph
noun, adverb
ph is spelled P-H: 2 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 9.3 times per million words in written English, the 7,445th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, ph means “Abbreviation of phot” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in ph?
| Letters | 2: P-H |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 9.3 times per million words; the 7,445th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is ph?
Ph appears 9.3 times per million words in written English, the 7,445th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce ph?
Ph has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does ph mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Abbreviation of phot.
- 2
Initialism of physical health.
noun
- 1
Measure of the acidity (low pH) or basicity (high pH) of an aqueous solution, equal to the negative logarithm of the concentration of hydronium ions in molars.
noun
- 1
Initialism of public house.
- 2
Initialism of penthouse.
- 3
Initialism of preliminary hearing.
- 4
Initialism of public health.
- 5
Initialism of physical health.
- 6
Initialism of public holiday.
- 7
Initialism of polynomial hierarchy.
- 8
Initialism of professional hydrologist.
noun
- 1
Abbreviation of phenyl.
adverb
- 1
Initialism of phonetically: A notation used in transcripts to indicate that the transcriber is unsure of the spelling, usually of a name, and has spelled phonetically.
Wiktionary also records ph as a common misspelling of another word in some uses; the senses above are its own.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Ph in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense Translations:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | pH, potentiel hydrogène |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does ph come from?
Originally introduced in 1909 by S. P. L. Sørensen, using the notation p_(H⁺) for what he called the “hydrogen ion exponent” (Wasserstoffionenexponent) of a solution. He may have chosen the symbol p arbitrarily; another suggestion is that it either an abbreviation of French puissance, German Potenz, Danish potens (“power”) or English potential. The H is the international chemical symbol for the element hydrogen.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).