pillage
/ˈpɪl.ɪd͡ʒ/
"pillage" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pillage” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #39,028 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #39,028
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To loot or plunder by force, especially in time of war.
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 | pillage |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈpɪl.ɪd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #39,028 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pillage” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for pillage is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpɪl.ɪd͡ʒ/. Corpus data places it at rank #39,028 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To loot or plunder by force, especially in time of war.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for pillage, with forms such as "ipllage", "pilage", and "pilalge". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "pillar", "pillars", "Pilate", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old French pillage, from piller (“plunder”), from an unattested meaning of Late Latin piliō, probably a figurative use of Latin pilō (“I remove (hair)”), from pilus (“hair”). The correct English form is pillage, spelled P-I-L-L-A-G-E.
Definition
- 1To loot or plunder by force, especially in time of war.
Etymology
From Old French pillage, from piller (“plunder”), from an unattested meaning of Late Latin piliō, probably a figurative use of Latin pilō (“I remove (hair)”), from pilus (“hair”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ipllage,pilage,pilalge,pillaeg,pillagge,pillgae,plilage,ppillage
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pillage - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "pillage"?
What does "pillage" mean?
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Using “pillage”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-I-L-L-A-G-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpɪl.ɪd͡ʒ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “pillar” - see the side-by-side comparison. pillage vs pillar
- 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.