pistil

noun

"pistil" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
6
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A discrete organ in the center of a flower capable of receiving pollen and producing a fruit, it is divided into an ovary, style and stigma.

Corpus desk

Index EN-pistil · pistil · English

pistil · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 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 pistil
PropertyValue
Headwordpistil
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters6
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “pistil” in English

pistilsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

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

Rare enough to double-check

pistil is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A discrete organ in the center of a flower capable of receiving pollen and producing a fruit, it is divided into an ovary, style and stigma.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for pistil, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French pistil. Doublet of pestle and pistillum. The correct English form is pistil, spelled P-I-S-T-I-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    A discrete organ in the center of a flower capable of receiving pollen and producing a fruit, it is divided into an ovary, style and stigma.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Some plant species have more than one pistil per flower.

Etymology

Borrowed from French pistil. Doublet of pestle and pistillum.

This word in other languages

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 "pistil"?
"pistil" is spelled P-I-S-T-I-L.
What does "pistil" mean?
As a noun, "pistil" means: A discrete organ in the center of a flower capable of receiving pollen and producing a fruit, it is divided into an ovary, style and stigma.
What is the origin of the word "pistil"?
Borrowed from French pistil. Doublet of pestle and pistillum. 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