pheasant
/ˈfɛzənt/
"pheasant" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pheasant” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #27,961 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #27,961
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A bird of family Phasianidae, often hunted for food.
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 | pheasant |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfɛzənt/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #27,961 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pheasant” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for pheasant is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfɛzənt/. Corpus data places it at rank #27,961 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for pheasant, with forms such as "hpeasant", "pehasant", and "phaesant". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "pleasant", "peasant", "peasants", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English fesaunt, fesant, from Old French fesan, from Latin phāsiānus, from Ancient Greek φᾱσιανός (phāsianós), meaning “[bird] of the river Φᾶσις (Phâsis)”, from where, it was supposed, the bird spread to the west. Replaced native Old English wō… The correct English form is pheasant, spelled P-H-E-A-S-A-N-T.
Definition
- 1A bird of family Phasianidae, often hunted for food.
- 2The meat of this bird, eaten as food.
Etymology
From Middle English fesaunt, fesant, from Old French fesan, from Latin phāsiānus, from Ancient Greek φᾱσιανός (phāsianós), meaning “[bird] of the river Φᾶσις (Phâsis)”, from where, it was supposed, the bird spread to the west. Replaced native Old English wōrhana, a variant of mōrhana. More at moorhen.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hpeasant,pehasant,phaesant,pheaasnt,pheasannt,pheasantt,pheasatn,pheasnat,pheassant,phesaant,phheasant,ppheasant
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pheasant - 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 “pheasant”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-H-E-A-S-A-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈfɛzənt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “pleasant” - see the side-by-side comparison. pheasant vs pleasant
- 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.