placard
/ˈplæk.ɑːd/
"placard" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“placard” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #41,311 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #41,311
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A sheet of paper or cardboard with a written or printed announcement on one side for display in a public place.
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 | placard |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈplæk.ɑːd/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #41,311 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “placard” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for placard is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈplæk.ɑːd/. Corpus data places it at rank #41,311 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for placard, with forms such as "lpacard", "palcard", and "plaacrd". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "placed", "planar", "placid", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English placard (“official document”), from Middle French placard, placart, plaquart (“a placard, a writing pasted on a wall”), from the Old French verb plaquer, plaquier (“to stick or paste, roughcast”), from Middle Dutch placken, plecken (“to … The correct English form is placard, spelled P-L-A-C-A-R-D.
Definition
- 1A sheet of paper or cardboard with a written or printed announcement on one side for display in a public place.
- 2A public proclamation; a manifesto or edict issued by authority.
- 3Permission given by authority; a license.
- 4An extra plate on the lower part of the breastplate or backplate of armour.
- 5A kind of stomacher, often adorned with jewels, worn in the fifteenth century and later.
- 6The woodwork and frame of the door of a closet etc.
Etymology
From Middle English placard (“official document”), from Middle French placard, placart, plaquart (“a placard, a writing pasted on a wall”), from the Old French verb plaquer, plaquier (“to stick or paste, roughcast”), from Middle Dutch placken, plecken (“to glue or fasten, plaster, patch”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *plaggą (“a piece of cloth, patch”), equivalent to plaque + -ard. Related to Middle Low German placken (“to smear with lime or clay, plaster”), Saterland Frisian Plak, Plakke (“a hit, smack, slap”), German Placken (“a spot, patch”), Icelandic plagg (“a document”), Hebrew פלקט (plakat, “a large sheet of paper, typically with a photo or writing, posted on the wall”), English play. Compare also Modern Dutch plakkaat (“placard”), Saterland Frisian Plakoat (“a placard, poster”). More at play.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: lpacard,palcard,plaacrd,placadr,placardd,placarrd,placcard,placrad,plcaard,pllacard,pplacard
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of placard - 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “placard”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-L-A-C-A-R-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈplæk.ɑːd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “placed” - see the side-by-side comparison. placard vs placed
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.