pile
/paɪl/noun, verb
pile is spelled P-I-L-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,679th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, pile means “A mass of things heaped together; a heap” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of pile is piles.
How many letters and syllables are in pile?
| Letters | 4: P-I-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 14 times per million words; the 5,679th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is pile?
Pile appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,679th 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 pile?
- /paɪl/
Pile 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-pile.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with pile?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as pile.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: peil.
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 pile
- piles plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- piling participle, present
- piled participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does pile mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A mass of things heaped together; a heap.
- 2
informalA group or list of related items up for consideration, especially in some kind of selection process.
When we were looking for a new housemate, we put the nice woman on the "maybe" pile, and the annoying guy on the "no" pile.
- 3
A mass formed in layers.
a pile of shot
- 4
A funeral pile; a pyre.
- 5
slangA large amount of money.
He made a pile from that invention of his.
- 6
A large building, or mass of buildings.
- 7
A bundle of pieces of wrought iron to be worked over into bars or other shapes by rolling or hammering at a welding heat; a fagot.
- 8
A vertical series of alternate disks of two dissimilar metals (especially copper and zinc), laid up with disks of cloth or paper moistened with acid water between them, for producing a current of electricity; a voltaic pile, or galvanic pile.
- 9
obsoleteA dart; an arrow.
- 10
The head of an arrow or spear.
- 11
A large stake, or piece of pointed timber, steel etc., driven into the earth or sea-bed for the support of a building, a pier, or other superstructure, or to form a cofferdam, etc.
- 12
One of the ordinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost.
- 13
A hemorrhoid.
- 14
Hair, especially when very fine or short; the fine underfur of certain animals. (Formerly countable, now treated as a collective singular.)
- 15
The raised hairs, loops or strands of a fabric; the nap of a cloth.
- 16
A battery (simple device for converting chemical potential energy into usable electricity).
- 17
A battery consisting of repeated units of alternating types of metal; voltaic pile.
verb
- 1
To lay or throw into a pile or heap; to heap up; to collect into a mass; to accumulate
They were piling up wood on the wheelbarrow.
- 2
To cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load.
We piled the camel with our loads.
- 3
To add something to a great number.
- 4
(of vehicles) To create a hold-up.
- 5
To place (guns, muskets, etc.) together in threes so that they can stand upright, supporting each other.
- 6
To form a pile or heap.
Junk piled on the floor as we searched the attic for the old photograph albums.
- 7
To drive piles into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.
- 8
To give a pile to; to make shaggy.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Pile in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | monceau, tas, pile , faire pile, amasser, empiler |
| German | Haufen, Stoß, Stapel, Beige, Halde , stapeln |
| Portuguese | pilha, monte (desordenado) , fazer pilha, fazer monte desordenado, pôr em pilha, empilhar |
| Spanish | montón, rimero, pila, cúmulo, hacina, tambache |
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 pile come from?
From Middle English pyle, from Old French pile, from Latin pīla (“pillar, pier”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).