pie
/paɪ/
"pie" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pie” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,244 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,244
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - 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 conno...
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 | pie |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /paɪ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #5,244 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pie” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for pie is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /paɪ/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,244 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for pie, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. 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 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 bet… The correct English form is pie, spelled P-I-E.
Definition
- 1A 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.)
- 2Any of various other, non-pastry dishes that maintain the general concept of a shell with a filling.
- 3A pizza.
- 4A 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.
- 5The whole of a wealth or resource, to be divided in parts.
- 6An especially badly bowled ball.
- 7A pie chart.
- 8Something very easy; a piece of cake.
- 9The vulva.
- 10A kilogram of drugs, especially cocaine.
Etymology
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. The surname is ultimately derived from the bird above, and thus from Old French pie, from Latin pīca (“magpie”). If true, then doublet of speight.
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
How do you spell "pie"?
What does "pie" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "pie"?
How do you pronounce "pie"?
What is the origin of the word "pie"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “pie”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-I-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /paɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “PM” - see the side-by-side comparison. pie vs PM
- 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.