piss
/pɪs/
"piss" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“piss” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #5,443) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #5,443
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - Urine.
Corpus desk
Index EN-piss · piss · English
piss · rank #5,443 · 4 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #5,443
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-LOW 4 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH partial
Nearest frequency peer: partial (-1 rank slots)
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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “piss”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- mysterious
mysterious
94,561 corpus weight
- notion
notion
94,560 corpus weight
- partial
partial
94,559 corpus weight
- piss
piss
94,558 corpus weight
- placing
placing
94,557 corpus weight
- propaganda
propaganda
94,556 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “piss” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | piss |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɪs/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #5,443 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “piss” sits in English frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for piss is neighbouring look-alikes ("PS", "pit", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /pɪs/. Frequency #5,443 among 4,417 “P” headwords. 4 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for piss, with forms such as "ipss", "pis", and "ppiss". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "PS", "pit", "pos", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English pisse (noun) and pissen (verb), from Old French pissier, possibly from Vulgar Latin *pīssiāre, probably of imitative origin. Compare Old Norse pissa (“to urinate, piss”). Displaced Old English micge. The correct English form is piss, spelled P-I-S-S.
Definition
- 1Urine.
- 2The act of urinating.
- 3Alcoholic beverage, especially of inferior quality.
- 4An intensifier.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how piss appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
This toilet is disgusting. There's piss all over the floor.
[among the list of elixir ingredients][…]Of piss and egg-shells
Etymology
From Middle English pisse (noun) and pissen (verb), from Old French pissier, possibly from Vulgar Latin *pīssiāre, probably of imitative origin. Compare Old Norse pissa (“to urinate, piss”). Displaced Old English micge.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ipss
- pis
- ppiss
- psis
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of piss - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "piss"?
What does "piss" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "piss"?
How do you pronounce "piss"?
What is the origin of the word "piss"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "piss", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
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.