pin
/pɪn/noun, verb
pin is spelled P-I-N: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,444th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “pen vs pin” about 590 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, pin means “A needle without an eye (usually) made of drawn-out steel wire with one end sharpened and the other flattened or rounded into a head, used for…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of pin is pins.
How many letters and syllables are in pin?
| Letters | 3: P-I-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 19 times per million words; the 4,444th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is pin?
Pin appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,444th 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 pin?
- US /pɪn/
- US [ˈpʰɪn]
- /pən/
Pin has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-ca-pin.ogg, En-us-pin.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with pin
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: peen.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with pin?
7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as pin from its last stressed vowel (/ɪn/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: nip.
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 pin
- pins plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- pinning participle, present
- pinned participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does pin mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A needle without an eye (usually) made of drawn-out steel wire with one end sharpened and the other flattened or rounded into a head, used for fastening.
- 2
A small nail with a head and a sharp point.
- 3
A cylindrical piece of solid material, often of wood or metal, used to fasten or as a bearing between two parts.
Pull the pin out of the grenade before throwing it at the enemy.
- 4
The victory condition of holding the opponent's shoulders on the wrestling mat for a prescribed period of time.
- 5
A slender object specially designed for use in a specific game or sport, such as skittles or bowling.
- 6
informalA leg.
I'm not so good on my pins these days.
- 7
Any of the individual connecting elements of a multipole electrical connector.
The UK standard connector for domestic mains electricity has three pins.
- 8
A piece of jewellery that is attached to clothing with a pin.
- 9
A cataract of the eye.
verb
- 1
To fasten or attach (something) with a pin.
- 2
To cause (a piece) to be in a pin.
- 3
To pin down (someone).
He pinned his opponent on the mat.
- 4
To enclose; to confine; to pen; to pound.
- 5
To attach (an icon, application, message etc.) to another item so that it persists.
to pin a folder to the taskbar
- 6
To fix (an array in memory, a security certificate, etc.) so that it cannot be modified.
When marshaling data, the interop marshaler can copy or pin the data being marshaled.
- 7
To cause an analog gauge to reach the stop pin at the high end of the range.
- 8
slangTo inject for performance enhancement.
- 9
Alternative form of peen.
noun
- 1
Acronym of personal identification number.
- 2
Initialism of preferred IUPAC name.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Pin in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | épingle , goupille , quille , patte , pin's, épinglette |
| German | Stecknadel, Nadel , Stift, Bolzen , Reißnagel, Heftzwecke |
| Portuguese | alfinete , pino , pin , tacha , alfinetar , PIN |
| Spanish | alfiler, aguja , pasador, tranquilla , bolo, birla |
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 pin come from?
From Middle English pinne, from Old English pinn (“pin, peg, bolt”), from Proto-Germanic *pinnaz, *pinnō, *pint- (“protruding point, peak, peg, pin, nail”), from Proto-Indo-European *bend- (“protruding object, pointed peg, nail, edge”). Related to pen (“enclosure”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).