pie
/paɪ/noun, verb
pie is spelled P-I-E: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,206th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “pi vs pie” about 320 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, pie means “A type of pastry that consists of an outer crust and a filling. (Savory pies are more popular in the UK and sweet pies are more popular in the US, so…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of pie is pies.
How many letters and syllables are in pie?
| Letters | 3: P-I-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 15 times per million words; the 5,206th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is pie?
Pie appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,206th 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 pie?
- US /paɪ/
- Australia /pɑɪ/
Pie has one syllable (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). Recordings: En-us-pie.ogg, En-au-pie.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with pie
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: pi (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with pie?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as pie from its last stressed vowel (/aɪ/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: epi, ipe.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of pie
- pies plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- pieing participle, present
- pied participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does pie mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A type of pastry that consists of an outer crust and a filling. (Savory pies are more popular in the UK and sweet pies are more popular in the US, so "pie" without qualification has different connotations in these dialects.)
The family had steak and kidney pie for dinner and cherry pie for dessert.
- 2
Any of various other, non-pastry dishes that maintain the general concept of a shell with a filling.
Shepherd's pie is made of mince covered with mashed potato.
- 3
USA pizza.
- 4
A paper plate covered in cream, shaving foam or custard that is thrown or rubbed in someone’s face for comical purposes, to raise money for charity, or as a form of political protest; a custard pie; a cream pie.
- 5
The whole of a wealth or resource, to be divided in parts.
- 6
An especially badly bowled ball.
- 7
A pie chart.
- 8
informalSomething very easy; a piece of cake.
- 9
A former low-denomination coin of northern India.
- 10
A traditional Spanish unit of length, equivalent to about 27.9 cm.
- 11
obsoleteMagpie.
- 12
Ellipsis of pie-dog (“an Indian breed, a stray dog in Indian contexts”).
- 13
Alternative form of pi (“metal type that has been spilled, mixed together, or disordered”).
verb
- 1
To hit in the face with a pie, either for comic effect or as a means of protest (see also pieing).
I'd like to see someone pie the chairman of the board.
- 2
To go around (a corner) in a guarded manner.
- 3
UKslangTo ignore (someone).
- 4
Alternative form of pi (“to spill or mix printing type”).
adjective
- 1
Initialism of Proto-Indo-European.
noun
- 1
Initialism of public-interest entity.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Pie in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | tarte , tourte , gâteau , entarter |
| German | but see Kuchen, Torte, Pastete , torten , uridg. |
| Portuguese | tarte |
| Spanish | pastel, pay, tarta, pai |
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 pie come from?
From Middle English pye, pie, pey (“baked dish, filled pastry”), possibly attested earlier (c. 1199) in the surname Piehus (“pie-house?”). Further origin uncertain. Relation to Middle English pie, pye (“magpie”) has been suggested due to correspondences between other similar foods and the names of birds (compare haggis (“Scottish dish”) and haggess (“magpie”); and chewet (“meat pie”) and chewet (“chough, jackdaw”); however, the baked dish may instead be named after a creator with the surname Pie, a common name at the time.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).