place
/pleɪs/
"place" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“place” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #187 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #187
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An area; somewhere within an area.
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 | place |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pleɪs/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #187 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “place” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for place is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /pleɪs/. Corpus data places it at rank #187 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 23 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for place, with forms such as "lpace", "palce", and "placce". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "PLC", "play", "plan", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English place, conflation of Old English plæċe (“place, an open space, street”) and Old French place (“place, an open space”), both from Latin platēa (“plaza, wide street”), from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα (plateîa), shortening of πλατεῖα ὁδός (plate… The correct English form is place, spelled P-L-A-C-E.
Definition
- 1An area; somewhere within an area.
- 2An area; somewhere within an area.
- 3An area; somewhere within an area.
- 4An area; somewhere within an area.
- 5An area; somewhere within an area.
- 6An area; somewhere within an area.
- 7An area; somewhere within an area.
- 8An area; somewhere within an area.
- 9An area; somewhere within an area.
- 10A location or position in space.
- 11A particular location in a book or document, particularly the current location of a reader
- 12A passage or extract from a book or document.
- 13A topic.
- 14A state of mind.
- 15A chess position; a square of the chessboard.
- 16A responsibility or position in an organization.
- 17A responsibility or position in an organization.
- 18A responsibility or position in an organization.
- 19A responsibility or position in an organization.
- 20A fortified position: a fortress, citadel, or walled town.
- 21Numerically, the column counting a certain quantity.
- 22Ordinal relation; position in the order of proceeding.
- 23Reception; effect; implying the making room for.
Etymology
From Middle English place, conflation of Old English plæċe (“place, an open space, street”) and Old French place (“place, an open space”), both from Latin platēa (“plaza, wide street”), from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα (plateîa), shortening of πλατεῖα ὁδός (plateîa hodós, “broad way”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“to spread”), extended form of *pleh₂- (“flat”). Displaced native Old English stōw, stede (partially), and -ern. Compare also English pleck (“plot of ground”), West Frisian plak (“place, spot, location”), Dutch plek (“place, spot, patch”). Doublet of piatza, piazza, and plaza. In the etymological chain from Latin platēa, note Old French place, which has multiple descendants — including German Platz, itself with many descendants (e.g., Russian плац (plac)). Also note a more distant chain node Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús), whence English Plato and English plate (via Latin).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: lpace,palce,placce,plaec,plcae,pllace,pplace
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of place - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
How do you spell "place"?
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Using “place”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-L-A-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /pleɪs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “PLC” - see the side-by-side comparison. place vs PLC
- 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.