Pilate
/ˈpaɪlət/
"pilate" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Pilate” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #35,016 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #35,016
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Pontius Pilate, the man who, according to the Bible, ordered the crucifixion of Jesus.
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 | Pilate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈpaɪlət/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #35,016 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Pilate” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Pilate is 6 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpaɪlət/. Corpus data places it at rank #35,016 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Pontius Pilate, the man who, according to the Bible, ordered the crucifixion of Jesus.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for Pilate, with forms such as "iplate", "pialte", and "pilaet". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pile", "plat", "place", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The surname is from Latin Pīlātus (“a Roman cognomen”, literally “armed with javelins”), from pilum (“javelin, pestle”), of unknown ultimate origin. The correct English form is Pilate, spelled P-I-L-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1Pontius Pilate, the man who, according to the Bible, ordered the crucifixion of Jesus.
Etymology
The surname is from Latin Pīlātus (“a Roman cognomen”, literally “armed with javelins”), from pilum (“javelin, pestle”), of unknown ultimate origin.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: iplate,pialte,pilaet,pilatte,pillate,piltae,pliate,ppilate
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Pilate - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “Pilate”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-I-L-A-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpaɪlət/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “pile” - see the side-by-side comparison. Pilate vs pile
- 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.