pigskin
/ˈpɪɡˌskɪn/
"pigskin" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pigskin” is uncommon English (frequency #70,167 among 46,516 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #70,167
- frequency rank, English
- 46,516
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The skin of a pig.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pigskin |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɪɡˌskɪn/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #70,167 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pigskin” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
pigskin is uncommon English at frequency #70,167 among 46,516 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈpɪɡˌskɪn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for pigskin, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: Compound of pig + skin. The American football is a direct descendant of the ball used in the game of rugby. The rugby ball originally was made of a pig’s bladder with a leather cover; the earliest versions of the leather exterior sometimes were made of pigs… The correct English form is pigskin, spelled P-I-G-S-K-I-N.
Definition
- 1The skin of a pig.
- 2Leather made from the skin of a pig.
- 3A football.
Etymology
Compound of pig + skin. The American football is a direct descendant of the ball used in the game of rugby. The rugby ball originally was made of a pig’s bladder with a leather cover; the earliest versions of the leather exterior sometimes were made of pigskin.
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 "pigskin"?
What does "pigskin" mean?
How do you pronounce "pigskin"?
What is the origin of the word "pigskin"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “pigskin”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-I-G-S-K-I-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpɪɡˌskɪn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.