pinchpenny

noun

"pinchpenny" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“pinchpenny” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - One who spends little money; one who is very frugal or cautious with money.

Corpus desk

Index EN-pinchpenny · pinchpenny · English

pinchpenny · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "P" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for pinchpenny
PropertyValue
Headwordpinchpenny
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “pinchpenny” in English

pinchpennyranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

pinchpenny is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "One who spends little money; one who is very frugal or cautious with money.".

pinchpenny has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Etymologically, the entry records: From pinch + penny. The correct English form is pinchpenny, spelled P-I-N-C-H-P-E-N-N-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    One who spends little money; one who is very frugal or cautious with money.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how pinchpenny appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Over the years, he developed a reputation as a pinchpenny who wouldn't spend money for anything.
  2. That they accompt one a dastard if he be not defperate, a pynch penny if he be not prodygall, if filent a fotte, if full of wordes a foole?

Etymology

From pinch + penny.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "pinchpenny"?
"pinchpenny" is spelled P-I-N-C-H-P-E-N-N-Y.
What does "pinchpenny" mean?
As a noun, "pinchpenny" means: One who spends little money; one who is very frugal or cautious with money.
What is the origin of the word "pinchpenny"?
From pinch + penny. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list