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pip

/pɪp/noun, verb

pip is spelled P-I-P: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.2 times per million words in written English, the 18,297th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, pip means “Any of various respiratory diseases in birds, especially infectious coryza” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of pip is pips.

How many letters and syllables are in pip?

Letters3: P-I-P
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing2.2 times per million words; the 18,297th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

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).

How common is pip?

Pip appears 2.2 times per million words in written English, the 18,297th 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 pip?

  • /pɪp/

Pip 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-pip.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of pip

  • the pip
  • pips plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • pipping participle, present
  • pipped participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does pip mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Any of various respiratory diseases in birds, especially infectious coryza.

  2. 2

    datedA disease, malaise or depression in humans.

  3. 3

    obsoleteA pippin, seed of any kind.

  4. 4

    UKobsoleteA seed inside certain fleshy fruits, such as the stone (pit) of a stonefruit or the smaller seeds of an orange or apple.

    Apple pips are edible, but don't have a pleasant taste.

  5. 5

    UScolloquialSomething or someone excellent, of high quality.

  6. 6

    UKdatedP in RAF phonetic alphabet.

  7. 7

    One of the spots or symbols on a playing card, domino, die, etc.

  8. 8

    One of the stylised version of the Bath star worn on the shoulder of a uniform to denote rank, e.g. of a soldier or a fireman.

  9. 9

    A spot; a speck.

  10. 10

    A spot of light or an inverted V indicative of a return of radar waves reflected from an object; a blip.

  11. 11

    A piece of rhizome with a dormant shoot of the lily of the valley plant, used for propagation

  12. 12

    One of a series of very short, electronically produced tones, used, for example, to count down the final few seconds before a given time or to indicate that a caller using a payphone needs to make further payment to continue the call.

  13. 13

    The smallest price increment between two currencies in foreign exchange (forex) trading.

verb

  1. 1

    To remove the pips from.

    Peel and pip the grapes.

  2. 2

    To get the better of; to defeat by a narrow margin.

    He led throughout the race but was pipped at the post.

  3. 3

    To hit with a gunshot.

    The hunter managed to pip three ducks from his blind.

  4. 4

    To peep, to chirp.

  5. 5

    To make the initial hole during the process of hatching from an egg.

noun

as PIP
  1. 1

    Acronym of picture-in-picture.

  2. 2

    Acronym of predicted impact point.

  3. 3

    Acronym of performance improvement plan.

  4. 4

    Acronym of product improvement program.

  5. 5

    Acronym of peak inspiratory pressure.

  6. 6

    Acronym of personal independence payment.

noun

as PiP
  1. 1

    Initialism of picture-in-picture.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Pip in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpépie (respiratory disease in birds), pépin (seed), point (dot, symbol on domino, die, etc), top, bip (short electronically produced tone)
GermanPips (respiratory disease in birds), Kern (seed), Auge (dot, symbol on domino, die, etc)
Portuguesepevide (respiratory disease in birds), caroço, semente (seed)
Spanishpipa, pipo (seed), punto (dot, symbol on domino, die, etc)

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 pip come from?

From Middle English pippe, from Middle Dutch pip, from post-classical Latin pipita, from Latin pītuīta (“mucus, phlegm, head cold”). Doublet of pituita.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after pip