pith
/pɪθ/noun, verb, adjective
pith is spelled P-I-T-H: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 55,433rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, pith means “The soft, spongy substance inside plant parts; specifically, the parenchyma in the centre of the roots and stems of many plants and trees” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of pith is piths.
How many letters and syllables are in pith?
| Letters | 4: P-I-T-H |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words; the 55,433rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is pith?
Pith appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 55,433rd 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 pith?
- US /pɪθ/
As an adjective (“The ordinal form of the number pi (π; approximately…”): /paɪθ/.
Pith 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-AcpoKrane-pith.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with pith?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as pith from its last stressed vowel (/ɪθ/):
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 pith
- piths plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- pithing participle, present
- pithed participle, past
- pi-th
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does pith mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The soft, spongy substance inside plant parts; specifically, the parenchyma in the centre of the roots and stems of many plants and trees.
- 2
The albedo (“whitish inner portion of the rind”) of a citrus fruit.
- 3
The soft tissue inside a human or animal body or one of their organs; specifically, the spongy interior substance of a horn or the shaft of a feather.
- 4
Chiefly of animals: the soft tissue inside a spinal cord; the spinal marrow; also, the spinal cord itself.
- 5
obsoleteSynonym of diploe (“the thin layer of soft, spongy, or cancellate tissue between the bone plates which constitute the skull”).
- 6
obsoleterareThe soft tissue of the brain.
- 7
IrelandThe soft inner portion of a loaf of bread.
- 8
The central or innermost part of something; the core, the heart.
- 9
One divided by pi, that is, 1/π (approximately 0.31831…).
verb
- 1
To render insensate or kill (an animal, especially cattle or a laboratory animal) by cutting, piercing, or otherwise destroying the spinal cord.
- 2
To extract the pith from (something or (figurative) someone).
adjective
- 1
The ordinal form of the number pi (π; approximately 3.14159…).
The pith root of pi is approximately 1.439…
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Pith in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | moelle , mie , cœur , piième, pi-ième, πième |
| German | Mark |
| Portuguese | medula , miolo |
| Spanish | medula, médula, pulpa , meollo |
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 pith come from?
The noun is derived from Middle English pith, pithe (“soft interior; pith, pulp”) [and other forms], from Old English piþa [and other forms], from Proto-Germanic *piþô, from earlier *piþō (oblique *pittan); further etymology unknown. Doublet of pit (“seed or stone inside a fruit”). The verb Middle English pethen (“to give courage or strength”), derived from pith (noun), did not survive into modern English.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).