piecewise
"piecewise" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“piecewise” is uncommon English (frequency #82,667 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #82,667
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - In terms or by means of pieces; a piece at a time.
Corpus desk
Index EN-piecewise · piecewise · English
piecewise · rank #82,667 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #82,667
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH pickpocketing
Nearest frequency peer: pickpocketing (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “piecewise”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- phonebook
phonebook
17,338 corpus weight
- physiograph…
physiographic
17,337 corpus weight
- pickpocketi…
pickpocketing
17,335 corpus weight
- piecewise
piecewise
17,334 corpus weight
- pillion
pillion
17,332 corpus weight
- pillory
pillory
17,331 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “piecewise” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | piecewise |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #82,667 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “piecewise” in English
Rare enough to double-check
piecewise is uncommon English at frequency #82,667 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anadverb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
piecewise doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From piece + -wise. The correct English form is piecewise, spelled P-I-E-C-E-W-I-S-E.
Definition
- 1In terms or by means of pieces; a piece at a time.
- 2Throughout separate parts, but not necessarily throughout the whole.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how piecewise appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Near-synonyms: piecemeal, apiece
One could even do the recount piecewise, starting with the most questionable regions.
Etymology
From piece + -wise.
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 "piecewise", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).